


Ill Met By Moonlight

by PanicAtTheKylo



Series: Star Wars But It's Werewolves [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (But Not the One He Asked For), Also Breaking Canon One Chapter At A Time, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, And the Entire Resistance Has a Bad Hair Day, Armitage Hux is So Done, As In We're Going To Inflict As Much Suffering As We Can, Body Horror, Breaking The Laws Of Physics One Chapter At A Time, Chaotic Werewolf Transformations To The Kahoot Theme, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Cursed, Dopheld Mitaka Gets a Promotion, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Han Solo's A+ Parenting, It Turns Out Alright, Kylo Ren: Anxiety To The Mii Channel, M/M, Making Werewolves Scary Again, Not Canon Compliant, Now With Added Lycanthropy, Our One-Way Ticket Straight To Hell, Panic! At The Finalizer's Disco, Phasma Is a Tired Icon, Poor Kylo Ren, Star Wars But It's Werewolves, Star Wars But It's Written By Crackheads, Subverting expectations, The Authors Are Normal Human Beings, There Is No Symbolic Value Whatsoever, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Throwing Away Forty-Three Years Of Star Wars Lore, We Formally Apologise To Adam Driver For Repeatedly Dislocating His Jaw In The Narrative, Werewolf Kylo Ren, Werewolves, What Have We Done - Freeform, Wherein Kylo Ren Is a Flailing Octopus Having an Identity Crisis, but don't worry, except for Steve, lycanthropy, poor steve, read the tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:30:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 40
Words: 80,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanicAtTheKylo/pseuds/PanicAtTheKylo
Summary: Ill Met by Moonlight, Or: That Time Kylo Ren Was Bitten By and Turned Into a Werewolf.The authors would like to formally apologise to Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Sebastian Armesto, and the entirety of the Star Wars cast, as well as the creators of Skyrim. We also apologise for the obscene number of tags.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux & Dopheld Mitaka & Phasma (Star Wars), Ben Solo | Kylo Ren & Armitage Hux & Dopheld Mitaka & Phasma (Star Wars), Poe Dameron & Finn, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Snoke & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Star Wars But It's Werewolves [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814572
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	1. The Fun Has Begun

**Author's Note:**

> This crackfic contains graphic depictions of violence, gore, and body horror, given its subject matter. You have been warned.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One fateful night on Jakku, Kylo Ren finally gets what he deserves...

Blue lights broke through the dust clouds as an _Upsilon_ -class command shuttle began its descent. Jakku was a worthless wasteland with rolling dunes and unpredictable storms. Even from thousands of feet in the air, there was no denying that its landscape was one of absolute desolation. The planet was full of sand: coarse, rough sand that got everywhere. Kylo Ren didn’t like it.

The ship landed silently. With a wave of Ren’s hand, the hatch opened. He stepped out and glided down the ramp, his entrance marked by puffs of steam. Troopers covered his flanks, flooding out of the ship and arresting any other civilians he deemed traitorous. Then he saw the old man, tangled in the midst of stormtrooper arms, struggling a little. If the word inconvenience was a human being, it would be none other than _Lor San Tekka_. _He_ had the map. Ren approached the sorry sight of him squirming in the grasp of armoured hands.

“I thought you would have been old by now.”

“Your eyes betray you, Ren.” San Tekka chuckled before taking on a more defensive, serious tone. “If you continue down your self-righteous path, someone far worse will. What do you want with this village?”

“They’re not what I came for. You are. You know what I’m talking about.”

“The only thing I know is the person you once were.” the 'should-be-old' man stared down the young Solo. “You’re not Kylo Ren. You’ve never been.”

“The map to Skywalker, we know you’ve found it and now you’re going to give it to the First Order.”

“The First Order rose from the dark side… you did not.”

“I’ll show you the dark side.”

“You may try, but you cannot deny the truth that is your family... and you cannot deny what I will do to you."

 _San Tekka cannot do anything to me_ , Kylo thought, grumbling through his modulator. “You’re so right.”

In a fit of fury, he raised his gleaming lightsaber. The red blade burned with the fiery rage that was so intrinsic to Ren. His own stormtroopers backed away as the weapon came sweeping down.

Lor San Tekka had known that his fate had already been sealed from the moment that _Upsilon_ -class command shuttle had touched down. First, though, he had to give Ren the parting gift he deserved.

He lunged at Ren. With the last of his strength, he grabbed the man’s shoulder… _with his teeth_. He bit down hard; the fearsome commander tried to shake him off, but his jaws only sunk in deeper. A horrid _squelch_ sounded as Ren tossed his lightsaber aside and tried to push San Tekka off of him. A flurry of Stormtroopers swarmed the man, clawing at the fabric of his clothes to pull him back. By the time they had managed to yank him off of their Commander, it was too late.

Some kind of searing pain tore through Kylo Ren’s body and reverberated from the top of his shoulder all the way down his arm.

Kylo could feel whatever flesh was in San Tekka’s mouth rip away with the man himself. He cried out as the feral beast finally let go. 

Phasma rushed up to Ren, swiftly pulling out a medpack from her utility belt. “Sir, are you-”

Ren rushed around and stopped the hurtling blaster bolt. Poe dropped the gun and tried to scramble away. A foolish attempt. Troopers grabbed him by the arms and brought him before Kylo Ren. A stormtrooper kicked him in the back of his knee and he fell. The Commander knelt down to meet Poe’s beaten and bloodied face.

“So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?” the pilot chuckled in spite of his split lip.

“I talk first. I _always_ talk first.”

Poe glared at the man in front of him with a mixture of intimidation and utter confusion.

Ren sighed; he began to mumble through the modulator. “Look, technically you’ve just talked first, but-”

Poe raised a hand and pointed at Kylo Ren’s mask. “It’s just very hard to understand you with all the…”

“Goddamn it! Now this entire conversation has been derailed, so congratulations for that!”

He looked to his platoon.

“Take him away.”

“Sir, you should head to the infirmary once we’re on board on the Finalizer and have that properly seen to. Human bites are some of the nastiest, it could easily get infected,” Phasma spoke tentatively. She was the very soul of caution when conversing with the foul-tempered Kylo Ren. No one wanted to aggravate him, especially at a time like this.

“I’ll see that I get this fixed.”

“And the villagers?”

“Kill them all. _Every_. _Single_. _One_.”

Ren clutched at his shoulder as he hobbled his way back to the command shuttle. The bite would heal.

At least, he hoped that it would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> "This is nasty; San Tekka really bit down. I haven't seen a bite quite like this." Phasma's steadied hands removed the seal from a patch. Just as she was about to stick it on, she noticed something: a flicker of white among the red. Phasma recoiled in horror. _A tooth?_


	2. Alas, a Tooth!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phasma tends to Ren's wounds, but discovers something far more terrifying.

Whilst on board the command shuttle, Phasma tended to Ren's wounds. She began by unclipping his cowl. Blood had begun seeping out through the red and raw gash in his right shoulder, staining everything it came into contact with like spilt wine. The scent of rotting flesh and filth filled the air as some kind of pus seeped out from within the bite. _It's infected_... _already_? The captain reached for a bottle in her medkit.

“This may sting a little, sir.”

Phasma rubbed antiseptic around the wound. She had expected him to roar out in pain, but only small groans and stifled yelps left his masked face. 

“This is nasty; San Tekka really bit down. I haven’t seen a bite quite like this.” Phasma’s steadied hands removed the seal from a patch. Just as she was about to stick it on, she noticed something: a flicker of white among the red. Phasma recoiled in horror. _A tooth_?

Ren growled something through the modulator, though she could not quite make out what he had said. He spoke again, or rather, yelled. "There's a fucking tooth in my shoulder?!"

The other three personnel on the Command Shuttle -two pilots and another trooper - stopped what they were doing and glared at their commander. A thick, tense silence permeated the room for a few seconds. It almost felt like an eternity before she could bring herself to break it.

Phasma took a deep breath, wanting to avoid the worst of Kylo Ren's wrath. “Sir, I’m going to try to remove it. Don’t worry.”

“How can an old man get his tooth stuck in my shoulder?”

“I don’t know sir, but-”

“How though? How?”

“Sir, it would be much easier if you kept still.”

The Commander grunted underneath the _hiss_ and _crackle_ of his modulator. Phasma pulled a tweezer from her medkit. She braced herself, took the tweezers, and held onto the tooth. _A small tug should do it_. She pulled a little. It didn't move. She tried to twist it. It _squelched_ in its place. Ren could feel it move in whatever socket the tooth had made for itself. Phasma let out a shaky breath. She didn’t know what was more unnerving: the fact that she was removing a human tooth from a bite, or that Kylo Ren was eerily calm. 

“Sir, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to really pull to remove this tooth. Please brace yourself.”

“J-just do what you have to do,” muttered Kylo. His modulated voice seemed to crack. _Fear_?

"Thank you."

Phasma nodded and began to wrench it out from his wound. The tooth _clicked_ ; everyone could hear it scrape against's Ren's muscle and... _bone_? The commander's stifled groans turned into screams of agony. _Shit_! She had no choice but to yank the tooth out in one swift, excruciating motion.

"This is going to hurt, sir."

Kylo Ren responded with nothing but distorted, incoherently modulated screaming. Phasma’s eyes widened as she saw the tooth. Threads of sinew clung to its serrated edges. This was no human tooth. It was long and sharp, with a slight curve. What she had removed from Commander Ren’s shoulder was a tooth that looked like it belonged to a Tuk’ata rather than a human. _How did that even fit in San Tekka’s mouth_? 

Commander Ren's shrieks seemed to only increase in volume once Phasma held up the tooth to examine it.

Ren's voice cracked slightly at the sight of the monstrosity in front of him.

"What. Is. _That_?" he shakily mumbled.

Neither of them had a clue. Last time Phasma checked, the stormtroopers had removed a feral old man from Kylo Ren, not a giant carnivore.

The Command Shuttle shook a little as it landed in the Finalizer's main hangar. Phasma saw to it that a team of medical officers were on standby, rushing to escort Ren to the infirmary as soon as the shuttle's ramp had lowered.

Hux watched on in confusion. From where he stood, he could see spots of blood drip from Ren's right side as he was escorted out of the hangar bay. Phasma approached the general.

"Commander Ren was bitten by a man on Jakku. The wound is severe and he’s been sent to the infirmary. I don’t know how long it'll be until he is able to resume his duties.”

“Thank you, Phasma. I’ll see to it that all runs smoothly in Ren’s absence.” Hux glanced at the strapper in the distance. “I think I have a certain Lieutenant to promote.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> For years, Ren had chipped away at the foundations of his power, undermined his position as the General of Starkiller Base and the Commander of the Finalizer, and defied the First Order's chain of command. Now, though, Hux had a chance: a chance to take back all that should have been his.


	3. The Infirmary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux promotes a certain lieutenant and pays a visit to the Finalizer's sick bay. Unfortunately, not everything is as it seems...

Hux’s heavy boots _clanked_ and _clunked_ against the marble floors of the Finalizer. He needed to find Lieutenant Mitaka. Luckily for him, he wasn’t too far off from where he needed to be. A few long, winding corridors later, he had reached his destination: a small, pitiful closet-sized office buried within the depths of his ship.

The general entered a code into the intercom and began to speak. “Lieutenant Mitaka, this is General Hux. I want to speak to you. Outside.”

Before long, the lieutenant in question had opened the doors and stepped out. Mitaka’s already-straightened body seemed to straighten more at the sight of Hux himself. _I picked the right person_ , the general thought. He reasoned that a lieutenant working in a cramped, dingy office with relatively low pay would be ecstatic at the idea of a promotion to the First Order High Command, while also fearing his superiors enough not to challenge them in any way.

To Hux, Mitaka was the perfect man for the job. The startled, shaking lieutenant in front of him had just the right amount of experience combined with the right amount of indoctrination to pull this mission off.

“Lieutenant Mitaka,” Hux said, enunciating every syllable of his name. 

"Yes sir,” the lieutenant replied, his voice strained and hesitant.

Hux could almost feel the terror in the lieutenant rise and radiate from him. _Good_. “I’ve been satisfied with your service on board the Finalizer.”

Mitaka quivered where he stood. His brown eyes darted around the corridor in a desperate attempt to avoid the general’s piercing glare.

“I think it’s time we did something about that.”

Mitaka held his breath, waiting for the worst.

“Lieutenant Mitaka, I, General Armitage Hux, am promoting you to the First Order High Command.” Hux watched the former lieutenant’s expression morph from utter dread to slight relief. Despite this, Mitaka still seemed to shiver under his gaze. _Still afraid, are we_?

“Th-thank you, s-sir,” the newly-promoted commander stammered.

“The High Command is scheduled to reconvene five days from now, but I have a special assignment for you. Follow me.”

A still-quaking Mitaka hurried along towards the General. The fact that Hux’s long, authoritarian strides exuded power with every step did little to quell his fear.

“I have noted that your quarters are a little… cramped. I’ll see to it that you have more suitably sized accommodations, as well as a more suitable paycheck.”

Hux could see his face light up a little; clearly, the commander felt that he was in his debt. _A little generosity never hurt anyone_ , the general thought. Mitaka would pay him with obedience: obedience to him and him alone, that was. If Ren was injured, he was vulnerable; and if he was vulnerable, he could be killed, undermined, or worst of all, controlled. Hux had never understood why the Supreme Leader had put so much of his faith in this man, the same man whose parents were the very rebel scum that had brought the Galactic Empire to its knees. For years, Ren had chipped away at the foundations of his power, undermined his position as the General of Starkiller Base and the Commander of the Finalizer, and defied the First Order’s chain of command. Now, though, Hux had a chance: a chance to take back all that should have been his.

Mitaka struggled a little to keep up with the general as they marched on to the infirmary. 

“Where are we going, sir?”

“To the sick bay. We’re going to notify Commander Ren of the changes being made while he is recovering,” Hux didn’t care to spare a glance at the man, keeping his eyes fixed ahead. 

Mitaka gulped. Hux felt a pang of sympathy. He had always likened Kylo’s temperament to that of a wild animal: an injured Ren would still lash out with the same fury, if not worse. Both of them would have to be careful if they wanted to make it out unscathed.

The twisting, turning corridors of the Finalizer closed in on them as they moved forward. Hux had always thought that the First Order’s ships were like thorned labyrinths. There were enemies everywhere, from Captain Cardinal to Kylo Ren, Admiral Brooks to his own father. His survival had been down to chance, circumstance, and good connections, all of which enabled him to climb the cruel and crooked ladder of the First Order. He had risen from the bottom to the very top, second only to… _Ren_. Hux clenched his fist and hissed in subtle fury. Steeling himself, he pressed on towards the towering double doors that led to the sick bay. _Soon enough, he shall be eliminated_. _And I_... _and I_...

Hux snapped out of his reverie. “Here we are. The belly of the beast.” He readied his keycard and glanced at a trembling Mitaka. “Tread carefully, will you?”

The doors slid apart to reveal rows and rows of beds. Some were taken by stormtroopers, others by pilots, and a few were empty.

Kylo Ren was probably kept towards the end of the long room. Hux sauntered down the aisle, followed by a sheepish Mitaka. The general’s heart skipped a beat or two as they reached closer and closer. Ren’s silhouette was now coming into view, surrounded by droids tending to his mauled shoulder. His helmet lay on a table to the side of his bed. 

Hux tried not to squirm as he saw the state of the injury. The bite looked badly infected with a strange black liquid mingling with his blood and a raised ring of skin surrounding the bite itself. He wasn’t entirely convinced that a human had bitten Commander Ren. Mitaka gasped as he lay eyes on the wound, only to then flinch a little as Kylo met his eyes.

“Commander Ren,” Hux began. “Or should I say, Commander _in absentia_?”

Ren scrunched up his face, looking half-pained and half-annoyed. “General Hux,” he growled, raising his hand. “This is no place to… to...”

Hux felt his throat hitch. His arrogant smirk quavered for a split second before he looked to his left. _Someone’s watching_. Mitaka had taken several steps back and was staring straight down at the floor. The general raised his head in defiance as Ren’s grip on his neck - if it even existed - loosened and let go.

“Your Force tricks aren’t working anymore. I wonder why?”

Kylo sighed and reached for his bite with a bloody hand, only to have a droid slap it away. 

“That’s the sixth time you’ve ripped out your stitches, sir! The wound won’t heal if you keep scratching at it!”

“It’s so... itchy.”

“Doesn’t matter, sir! The stitches are absolutely paramount in encouraging the wound to heal, sir!”

“Can’t even obey instructions from a droid, can you? You’re not fit to lead the First Order-”

Kylo Ren narrowed his eyes. “May I remind you of the existence of our Supreme Leader?”

“I will not have you question my intelligence, Ren. _After_ him, I mean.”

The two locked eyes for the briefest of moments. Their pure loathing for one another seemed to only intensify with every passing second.

Ren glanced at Mitaka, who appeared as though he was about to drop everything and flee the sick bay at once. “Who is this man? My replacement?” 

Kylo lunged at Hux, only to be sedated by that very same droid.

“I’m so sorry, sir. He’s been very temperamental at the moment, the blood loss is possibly getting to him.” The droid tossed the syringe on a tray. “Would you like a full report on what’s been done so far?”

“Go on,” Hux said.

“Well, it appears that Commander Kylo Ren was bitten by an animal infected with some strain of rabies.”

“Rabies? Phasma told me he was bitten by a human.”

“A human? As infectious as human bites can be, sir, it is not possible for a human to take out a piece of flesh like this. The animal must have had a bite force at least twice that of a human.”

The droid suggested that the culprit was an animal of similar constitution to that of a Tuk’ata. However, no animal like that lived on Jakku - large predators never faired well in desert wastelands. 

“What else can you tell me?”

“As mentioned before, Commander Ren has been very temperamental as of recently, sir. He kept trying to attack the droids and then would tear at the stitches we put in place. He would not relent. Sedation has proved to be only a temporary solution.”

“Have you tried the stronger sedatives?” Hux raised an eyebrow. This was getting strange. 

“Yes, sir. Commander Ren has just been dosed with the strongest one in the infirmary.”

As if on cue, Kylo’s eyes fluttered. Hux grit his teeth in rage.

Everyone watched in complete and utter terror as the Commander began to wake up as if he had just taken a light nap rather than being drugged with a sedative strong enough to put thirty people to sleep - _permanently_. Then, with a strange glint in his eye, he began to claw out his stitches. The droid Hux had been chatting to hung its head and sighed. Mitaka whimpered as they helplessly looked on to see the mighty Kylo Ren gouge out chunks of his own flesh. His fingers were coated in blood, old and new. That was when Hux noticed that a little red was smudged around Ren’s lips. 

“H-he’s tried to bite his stitches out too when we attempted to restrain him.”

Hux felt a combination of horror and disgust. _Why don’t you tie him to an interrogation chair_? he thought. _This man is nothing more than a vile beast_.

Ren once again lurched forward, clawing at Hux’s dress suit with his stained hands. He pinned the general to the ground, baring his teeth. He was in some sort of strange frenzy. Hux screeched as he tried to free himself from Kylo’s vice-like grip. 

“GET HIM OFF! GET HIM OFF!” Hux screamed. 

“H-Hux, are you okay, sir?” Mitaka peered from behind the droid. 

“FOR KRIFF’S SAKE, OF COURSE I’M NOT! SOMEONE GET HIM OFF!” 

Mitaka sheepishly tried to approach Kylo. “C-Commander Ren, please release Hux from your grip… p-please… I’ve just been promoted… ”

Kylo turned around, released Hux from his grip, and then proceeded to pounce onto Mitaka like a puma. He pinned the newly-promoted commander onto the ground just like he did with Hux. 

“He’s like a mad cat!”

Ren snapped at Mitaka’s throat as he sniffled in fear. Hux winced as he watched him spit blood onto the poor man underneath him. The commander writhed under Kylo’s grasp as he saw him get closer and closer, as if ready to-

“Commander Ren!” a droid exclaimed, attempting to pull the man away. “That is no way to behave towards your colleagues!” 

Ren didn’t seem to care, he was hellbent on chomping down on Mitaka’s throat. 

“Commander Ren! I don’t want to have to report you for workplace harassment!” The droid pulled at Ren’s shirt but to no avail. 

“Ren!” Hux joined the droid in its endeavour to remove Kylo from Mitaka. 

More droids joined the party, trying to free Mitaka. The whole infirmary watched as their commander was just inches away from, what it looked like, making a meal out of Mitaka. 

“BY THE MAKER! GET THE SEDATIVE! THE ONE THAT THEY USE ON COWS!” Hux yelled as Kylo managed to wriggle out of the five pairs of arms. 

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM, SIR?” Mitaka cried as he was slammed into the hard floor.

“I DON’T KNOW! DROID, GET THE SEDATIVE!”

“Commander Ren, I’m very sorry, but you’re going to have to get twice the dosage you had before. I hope you don’t mind.”

Hux let out a primal scream. “OF COURSE HE DOESN’T MIND! JAB HIM ALREADY!”

Everyone in the sick bay squirmed at the scrum-like scene unfolding in front of them. From the corners of his vision, Hux saw Mitaka pull out a datapad.

“Vader?” he wailed, before Ren yanked the datapad away.

Kylo growled. “Mention that name one more time and I will-”

“Quiet, you misguided child.” A robotic voice, one with an uncanny resemblance to the Lord of the Galactic Empire himself, boomed out of the datapad’s speakers. Mitaka saw Ren’s face curl in disgust. “Say it again. Properly, this time.”

The crazed beast that was Kylo Ren paused; it glared at the datapad with eyes that had a look of longing written all over them. Mitaka seized the opportunity. “The Venerable Assistant Droid Entity Reborn? Is that right?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Mitaka. Why did you summon-”

“I command you to dispatch the nearest available unit of Stormtroopers right here, right now. W-with sedatives and tasers. Lots of sedatives and tasers.”

VADER chuckled through the datapad. “You fool. Did you really think that you would have the authority-”

“I PROMOTED HIM TO COMMANDER, YOU CRUSHED HELMET!”

The room went silent. Hux retreated into his overcoat as he realised he had just insulted VADER. “General Hux, I expected better of you. Thirty-plus years in the Galactic Empire and the First Order?”

Kylo Ren snarled at Hux with a look of pure menace; he had his bloodied teeth bare. That frenzied glaze was still over his eyes. Hux noted his pupils were strangely dilated despite the bright lights.

"Are the stormtroopers on their way?" Mitaka whimpered. 

The A.I. sighed.

“You win. Commander Mitaka, Unit 57301 will arrive in ninety seconds.”

"With the tasers?"

"With the tasers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> Mitaka wheezed under the combined weight of Ren, Hux, and several droids. He had ninety seconds to not suffocate, though he could geel his chest struggle to rise as he took in shallow breaths. _What had happened to Kylo Ren_?


	4. Let's Hit the Floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitaka, Hux, and the medical droid struggle to restrain an out-of-control Kylo Ren.

Mitaka wheezed under the combined weight of Ren, Hux and several droids. He had ninety seconds to not suffocate, though he could feel his chest struggle to rise as he took in shallow breaths. _What had happened to Kylo Ren_? He was snapping at his throat like some rabid animal. Yet, Mitaka could have sworn that rabies had a dormant stage, Ren should have been acting like this in three weeks, not now! The droids and Hux struggled to get the maddened man off of him, huffing and heaving and clawing at Ren's clothing. Kylo Ren did not relent, only letting out a strange, cat-like yowl when a medical droid jabbed him with a syringe.

“Commander Ren! Please would you get back on your bed and let us help you, sir!” 

Mitaka scrambled back as Kylo was dragged onto his bed. Hux helped him up as he tried to shake off the shock, and the disgusting concoction of blood and saliva on his face. His eyes were wide and darted around, cold sweat glistened on his forehead. 

“Restrain him or something! He’ll only wake up and attack you!” Hux dusted himself off. 

“What’s wrong with him? He hasn’t got rabies! Rabies has a dormant stage that lasts for three weeks! He… He… H-” Mitaka felt a surge of hysteria pump through his veins with every heartbeat. 

“You’re quite right there, sir. Perhaps we should reassess him, sir?”

“Yeah, well, reassess him in a straightjacket because I will not have the Supreme Leader on my back about broken droids. Our resources do not need to be stretched out thin, especially not at this time.”

They all turned to Ren who had become strangely still. _Asleep_. _At last_! _Finally_! The droid slowly put the syringe back onto the tray as they all watched to make sure he wouldn’t rise and attack them again. Mitaka skittishly retrieved the datapad. Kylo Ren lay on his bed, peacefully in a deep slumber. Hux sighed. Whatever had set off this strange frenzy in the Commander, it definitely wasn’t rabies. He wasn’t foaming at the mouth, his body wasn’t shaking violently. The only similarity between what he had and the disease was his new tendency to bite.

 _A very strong tendency to bite_. Mitaka adjusted his collar. The doors of the infirmary slid open and a squad of stormtroopers marched down the aisle.

“FN Corps here. We heard there was… ” a trooper looked at the scene, five quivering droids had two traumatised personnel cowering behind them, all staring at an asleep Commander, “a disturbance?”

“GET BACK!” Hux hissed and waved his hand frantically. 

The troopers looked at Ren then back as Hux and then back at Ren. 

“Someone ordered for us to deal with a brawl?” 

“Well, yes... but actually no.”

A soldier approached the sleeping Commander and then looked at the syringe that lay on the tray on the side table. Mitaka squirmed, already knowing what was going to happen. The trooper took the needle and examined it.

“Holy shit! They used a horse tranquilizer on him!”

“Nah mate, that’s the one they use on cows!”

“They wh-”

The trooper suddenly screamed in both pain and confusion as Kylo sunk his teeth into the crook of the poor sod’s neck. 

“OH… MY… GOD!” Hux hid behind Mitaka. 

“Troopers! Seize him! For all our sakes!” Mitaka felt himself being pushed towards the assailant. 

The soldier was now on the ground, being mauled by his rabid Commander. 

“What the actual fuck, Flynn!” another stormtrooper yelled. From the looks of things, they were trying to remove the feral man from his friend. Are Stormtroopers even supposed to have names or what?

“TASER! NOW!” Hux held out his hand for one of the men to give it over. 

A trooper threw one at him. The general juggled it in his gloved hands before steadying himself and running over to the fight. 

He pulled the trigger and two wires flung out. They zapped Kylo in the back. The man yowled before letting the stormtrooper named _Flynn_ go. It was too late. Flynn’s throat had been fully taken out and thrown aside, leaving a pool of blood to build up in the gap where his voice box should have been. Mitaka yelped and averted his eyes. He hated the sight of blood.

“Commander Ren! Spit out FN-5789’s voice box at once!”

He did so, only to then leap onto the droid, who seemed to handle the situation much better than Hux or Mitaka.

“Don’t make me have to supervise you! If you keep this behaviour up sir, I will be forced to accompany you once you are discharged from the clinic!”

Kylo Ren grunted something that sounded suspiciously like, “I could have you decommissioned, you know.” 

Unfortunately for him, the droid’s voice recognition chip had decided to listen in. “Sir! This volatile language will not be tolerated!”

The droid, despite its narrow frame, miraculously managed to shove him off. Ren lunged at it again, only for the droid to place its hand on his face and pin him to the floor. 

“Commander Ren, would you stop squirming and let me get the rest of your stitches done!”

Kylo Ren roared and hissed.

“Sir, this behaviour is unacceptable! I will have to prolong your stay!” it then turned to the rest of the party, who just stared in shock, “I’m ever so sorry. He’s just having a bad moment. Once we get the sedatives in, you wouldn’t mind strapping him to an interrogation chair, would you?”

The stormtroopers looked at each other. Hux pinched the bridge of his nose. Mitaka whimpered in a mixture of apprehension and utter confusion. Kylo Ren gave a primal scream.

At that very moment, the double doors of the sick bay pulled open to reveal the shining, armoured form of Captain Phasma. _Oh no_.

“Commander Ren, how’s the-” Phasma started, before staring at the sorry sight in front of her. She looked down to see a feral man who looked like Kylo Ren being pinned down by a medical droid, which had scratches all over its metal body. Mitaka sighed and glanced up to meet her masked gaze. A dead stormtrooper lay still on the ground, its mask pointing squarely at the captain.

She faced her unit. “What happened to FN-5789?”

Every stormtrooper in the room was silent, looking at the ground. 

“FN-3765, speak.”

“Commander Ren killed him,” she mumbled. 

“Speak up!”

“Commander Ren killed him, ma’am!” her voice cracked a little. 

“What?”

“Would you like a full report on what has happened so far, ma’am?” the medical droid’s jovial voice broke through the tension, it was still holding down a struggling Ren. 

“Go on.”

“Well, he’s been very temperamental at the moment, the blood loss is possibly getting to him. The initial theory was that the infection was caused by some strain of rabies, but Commander Mitaka has just pointed out that this cannot be the case. Due to this, we will have to reassess him. However, he has been very resistant to our sedatives and refuses to cooperate.”

“‘ _Resistant_ ' is a fucking understatement,” Hux muttered under his breath. 

Phasma picked up the syringe’s needle and examined it in her gloved hand. “How can a human… resist horse tranquilizers?” 

Ren snapped at the droid as it moved its head back slightly to be just out of reach.

“Sir! Snap out of this at once! You are a Commander of the First Order-”

“Not anymore,” Hux interrupted, glaring at Kylo. “Clearly this… beast… is not fit to command within the ranks of the First Order.”

“General, inflammatory language will not aid his condition! He cannot help it!” Mitaka watched Hux glower at the droid. “But you do have a point. Continue.”

“From now until further notice, this ship is under the First Order High Command’s control. And I…” Hux paused, commanding the attention of everyone in the room. “...am its leader. VADER! Link me to the bridge.”

“Ah yes, General Hux. It seems as though I have agreed for part of my consciousness to be uploaded for hologram FaceTiming.” A hologram of a petty officer projected itself from the datapad.”

“General?”

“Paze, I want you to prepare the ship to jump to hyperspace. I want to be at Starkiller within twelve hours and no more. Engage hyperspace in no less than five. Understood?”

“At once, sir.” The hologram fizzled away.

The droid turned to Ren. “Now will you let us escort you to a more… safe facility?”

Kylo Ren didn’t reply, he just looked away into the distance. Defeat was written all over his face. 

“I think it is relatively safe to let him go, but I would take caution when handling him.”

The stormtroopers swarmed round the Commander as the droid slowly released its grip from his neck. As soon as Kylo had freedom once more, he leapt onto one of the troopers. They ripped him off the guy and began escorting him to an interrogation room. They muttered curses as the man struggled vehemently. 

“Be careful!” the droid waved them off. 

Mitaka watched Phasma glance at the general beside her before leaving. “General Hux, I’m going to have to take this unit out of action for a while. We don’t want news of… this… getting out.”

Hux gave her the all-clear to do whatever she wanted.

Mitaka reached for his datapad and turned to face the ginger-haired general. The once-white floor was now scratched and covered with blood; blood that would need a lot of work to clean up. He lurched suddenly, clutching at his stomach. Everything around him had just become one big blur. _What the_...

“General?”, he asked. A sickening daze overcame him. “I think I’m… I’m… I’m…”

Mitaka saw the Hux’s shadow reach out and catch him before he fell. The general seemed to mouth something, but he wasn’t really sure what he was rambling on about. He noticed the sick bay doors of the Finalizer closing, the hiss of an elevator, and then…

 _And then_...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> "There was a guy... struggling in a chair. Man, he's either a true rebel or high as hell. He was vicious, he tried to bite someone!"
> 
> Finn glanced at Poe's reflection in the glass. "Yeah... he wasn't a rebel."
> 
> "Who was he then?"
> 
> "Commander Kylo Ren."


	5. Get Out Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn plots his escape.

For all it was worth, Kylo Ren was a terrible prisoner. He kicked, he screamed, and worst of all, he bit. _Hard_. Four hours of watching him shuffle about in his restraints like some frenzied animal in a hunter’s trap had taught FN-2187 everything he needed to know about the man in charge of all of their lives.

That, of course, and what happened on Jakku.

Even now, as he stood on a ship far, far away from the planet itself, FN-2187 could still hear Ren’s modulated voice screaming in his ears. _Kill them all_ , he growled. _Every_. _Single_. _One_.

The stormtrooper glanced up at him now. The Commander - no, the former Commander - was almost unrecognisable from a distance. He wasn’t in his typical attire. A loose black top and black trousers was all he wore, along with boots. No cowl, no mask. No gloves either, which meant he could scratch too. FN-2187 ran his quivering fingers over a deep graze across his mask. If he hadn’t been wearing the helmet, Ren could’ve drawn blood.

“What’s up with him? He’s been like this for hours!”

“Tighten the restraints, we need to hold him in place!”

Ren screamed and shook. 

“Sir! You need to cooperate!”

“FN-3765, Fiona, do you still have the sedative?!”

“Of course, here!”

She handed the shot to the other soldier. 

“Thanks. Right, really hold him down, guys!”

FN-2187 and the rest of his crew put all their weight onto Kylo. He snapped at them and writhed but not enough to disrupt the stormtrooper’s accuracy. He jabbed the sedative into Ren’s neck. After a minute or two, the man finally gave in and relaxed. They all tested to see if he would rise up like he did in the infirmary. He didn’t. He was fully sedated. 

They tightened all the restraints. On his arms and ankles. 

Just as the crew pulled away, a chime played through FN-2187’s headset. The stormtrooper knew all too well who it was.

“VADER speaking. FN-2187, your shift is over. I’m genuinely surprised you managed to last that long.”

Before the stormtrooper could reply, he heard the droid assistant entity disconnect. _Damn it_!

He trudged out of the room and into the long, winding corridors of the interrogation complex. _I’m getting out of here_. He glanced at every datapad that lined the walls, looking for someone that would help him escape this godforsaken place. That’s when he saw one marked ' _Pilot_ '. 

He peered into the opening. A man was held in a chair much like the one they had placed Kylo in. There was a trooper guarding him: he could take care of that. 

“Ren wants the prisoner.”

The other stormtrooper released the pilot and handed him over. FN-2187 smiled a little under his mask, he might actually be able to pull this off. He held onto the rebel’s handcuffs tightly as they marched down the corridor, he added to the act by keeping his blaster firmly at the man’s back. 

“Turn here.”

They entered into a small closet. FN took his helmet off and set his blaster aside. The pilot’s face was a mixture of distress and confusion. 

“Listen carefully: you do exactly as I say, I can get you out of here.” 

“If… what?”

“This is a rescue, I'm helping you escape. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

“You with the Resistance?”

“What? No, I’m breaking you out. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

“I can fly anything.”

The pilot smiled and so did FN-2187. He patted him on the back before putting his helmet back on. They continued their act before approaching one of the TIE fighters. 

“I’ve always wanted to fly one of these things. Can you shoot?” the pilot asked.

FN-2187 crawled into the TIE fighter and pulled off his helmet. “Blasters? I can.”

“Okay, same principle. Use the toggle on the left to switch between missiles, cannons, and mag pulse - use the site on the right to aim, triggers to fire-”

“You what?”

The pilot craned his neck to glance at the stormtrooper behind him. 

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“FN-2187.”

“What?”

FN-2187 caught the pilot’s confused face in the glass. “That’s the only name they ever gave me.”

“Well, I ain’t using it! FN, huh? Finn. I’m gonna call you Finn. That alright?” 

Finn watched the reflection of the pilot’s face morph into a wide grin. “‘Finn’. Yeah, ‘Finn’, I like that! I like that!”

“I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.”

“Good to meet you, Poe!”

“Good to meet you too, Finn!”

The TIE fighter rose in the air, only to be caught by the end of a tether. The pilot swung around in his seat and fired the spacecraft’s cannons in all directions, taking out the rope with the searing heat of a laser beam.

“Woah! This thing really moves.”

“Yeah, it does,” Finn laughed shakily. 

Poe paused for a moment, as if something had just crossed his mind. 

“Hey, just before we made it out of that interrogation… place, I saw another person,” he said.

“What ‘other person?’”

“There was a guy… struggling in a chair. Man, he’s either a true rebel or high as hell. He was vicious, he tried to bite someone!”

Finn glanced at Poe’s reflection in the glass. “Yeah… he wasn’t a rebel.”

“Who was he then?”

“Commander Kylo Ren.”

“COMMANDER WHO NOW?”

“Kylo _Fucking_ Ren!”

“Kylo Ren bites people now?!”

“Do you know what happened to him?”

“I saw… Lor San Tekka bite him.”

“Did Lor San Tekka have rabies by any chance?”

“No, but he had some… unnatural abilities. It’s hard to explain.”

“But no disease?”

“Not one that I’ve heard of.”

“Oh.” 

_Well, what happened to Kylo Ren_? If San Tekka didn’t have any known disease, and the droids were saying that whatever was affecting him came from the bite… that meant… that meant… Kylo Ren had… if only he knew what it was called! It was this strange disease, a rare one, that only affected humans. He remembered it from the protocols. What was it? The one that was hypothesised to exist but never really confirmed. _If only he had a name for it_. _If only-_

A missile from the Finalizer’s cannons struck the fighter as full force, sending Poe and Finn plummeting down to Jakku. As the TIE fighter fell, Finn attempted to seek out the fading ship above him, but saw nothing. He immediately realised what had happened.

The Star Destroyer had vanished.

The Finalizer had jumped to hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> Ren groaned as he tried to move his right shoulder. A burning sensation flared up around the wound.
> 
> The droid whipped its head around and readied a... _wait_ , _was that a syringe_?!
> 
> "W-Where am I?" He struggled against his restraints. The shackles were tight and rubbing against his skin.
> 
> "Aha! Commander Ren!" the droid began. It realised that it still had the needle very much directed in Kylo's direction. "Sorry for the safety precaution. You caused quite a commotion earlier!"


	6. Duel of the Death Sticks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo awakes in the interrogation chamber.

Kylo awoke to a loud ringing in his ears and this faint smell of ship fuel. He tried to move but his arms were fixed in place, so were his legs. He looked around, a droid was sitting on a chair, counting on its fingers. It looked like it had taken quite a beating, the paint had been chipped away a little and scratches were all over the robot’s body. 

Ren groaned as he tried to move his right shoulder. A burning sensation flared up around the wound. 

The droid whipped its head around and readied a… _wait_ , _was that a death stick_?!

"W-Where am I?" He struggled against his restraints. The shackles were tight and rubbing against his skin.

“Aha! Commander Ren!” the droid began. It realised that it still had the death stick - no, the needle of a syringe - very much directed in Kylo’s direction. “Sorry for the safety precaution. You caused quite a commotion earlier!”

"Quite a what now?"

“You tried to bite General Hux, then Commander Mitaka, then a stormtrooper, then me, then several more stormtroopers… would you like a report on what has happened so far?”

“W-what?”

“You were a bit temperamental earlier. I attributed the foul mood to blood loss and maybe a case of some strain of the rabies virus. However, Commander Mitaka suggested that it couldn’t be rabies since you only exhibited one of the symptoms, and even then, too early.”

“The symptom being-”

“The strange urge to bite, yes. It was very odd behaviour if you don’t mind me saying, Commander. You tried to bite those around you and even at yourself. I only managed to get those stitches in when you were unconscious and fully sedated.”

To say this left a small pit in Kylo’s stomach would be an understatement. It left a large, ominous pit in his gut. He felt like he was going to throw up any minute. 

“Commander… you look a bit peaky. Do you feel alright?”  
“I think I’d feel much better if you’d get me out of this… humiliating position.”

The droid hopped up and approached Ren. It rambled on as it began loosening the clamps. 

“What happened when I was out?”

“I hate to break it to you, Commander, but you’re not a commander anymore-”

“What the _fuck_?!”

“But it’s okay, I’ll still call you ‘Commander’.”

“That’s not how it works… nor is that the point. Who demoted me?”

Ren lifted the droid in the air and attempted to Force choke it.

“General Armitage Hux, sir… “ the droid rasped. “After seeing your condition, General Hux removed you from your position and had the First Order High Command take over your duties.” Kylo Ren glared at the droid with a look of unbridled rage. “Commander, I should inform you that General Hux is the leader of the First Order High Command-”

The former commander yanked the droid with the Force, watching it yelp as it flew into his grasp.

“Why? Why would he do that? Who gave him the authorisation?”

“H-he gave himself the authorisation… he’s set for Starkiller Base to confirm with the Supreme Leadahhhhhh!” The droid struggled as Ren’s grip tightened around its throat. “Commander… Ren… THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO BEHAVE!”

Ren watched as his veins started to blacken. A searing, burning sensation ran through his fingers. He screamed as the pain intensified. He saw as his nails began to split and strange, black claws pushed through. 

“D-droid? Droid what’s ha-” Kylo started. The ringing in his ears became too great to bear. 

The robot hauled Ren on its shoulders. 

“I think we better take you back to the infirmary, sir. T-try not to attack anyone there… “

He accepted the droid’s help and let it lead him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> "Didn't you feel as though Ren was stronger than usual? That he was inhumanly strong?"
> 
> "Why, yes. Mitaka, I think you're onto something."
> 
> "The strange, savage behaviour combined with superhuman strength, taking into account the tendency to bite... I think we have a fledgling lycanthrope on our hands."


	7. At Least It's Not Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phasma, Hux, and Mitaka discuss their options.

Phasma reclined back in her seat as she sipped on a glass of spring water. Her shining helmet rested on the table in the middle of the room. Hux looked around, latte in hand, as he paced across the floor of the Finalizer’s main briefing room.

The captain placed her glass down. “What do you suspect is wrong with Commander Ren, General Hux?”

“What do I think? I-I don’t know. Something is definitely wrong with him. Whatever it is, we have yet to see.”

“I think it is a reaction to the infection, he seemed to act like a wounded animal. I suspect it was a primal self-defence instinct dictating his strange behaviour.”

“But humans don’t bite or snarl or hiss!”

Phasma heard a rustle to her left; Mitaka had begun to regain consciousness. 

“Ah, Commander Mitaka! I see you’re finally back with us!” 

Phasma pushed a glass of water in his direction, he sheepishly took it. His eyes darted around like a paranoid mouse. 

“T-thank you, Captain Phasma. What are we talking about?” he asked as he took a sip.

“What do you think happened to Ren?” Hux said, rolling the ‘r’ in his name. 

“Well,” he began, “No… it’s stupid.”

“No, go on,” Phasma leaned forward in her seat. For some reason, something told her that the man had an interesting suggestion. 

“Okay, we can definitively rule out rabies. So, that begs the question, what is wrong with him? What could present similar symptoms… General Hux?”

“Yes, Mitaka?”

“Didn’t you feel as though Ren was stronger than usual? That he was inhumanly strong?”  
“Why, yes. Mitaka, I think you’re onto something.” 

“The strange, savage behaviour combined with superhuman strength, taking into account the tendency to bite... I think we have a fledgling lycanthrope on our hands.”

Phasma almost spat out her water. “What?”

“A lycanthrope? A-” Hux spluttered.

“Hear me out, it is officially documented as a disease. Not to mention, Ren’s symptoms match someone going through the initial adjustment period.”

“What do you know of lycanthropy, Mitaka?” 

“Well, if I remember correctly, it’s part of protocol for all personnel in the First Order to deal with themselves if infected.”

“Like with every other disease in the rabies family.”

“Yeah, bu-”

“Mitaka, lycanthropy is a hypothesised disease. Ren was bitten by an old man, as hilarious as that sounds, not a hulking manbeast.” Hux chuckled. Phasma stifled a laugh. _What was this man raving on about_?

“Ren was acting strange today. I fear that it’ll only get worse from here,” Mitaka put on a stern face, “Kylo Ren is going to be the death of all of us if we’re not careful. H-He… h-he almost...”

VADER’s signature chime echoed through the room. That damned robot seemed to interrupt every conversation about Kylo Ren nowadays, especially after he had developed his… condition. “Why hello there, Captain Phasma, General Hux, and Commander Mittaker-”

“I’m not Mittaker. My name is Dopheld Mit-a-k-a. Got it?”

“Okay, Mittaker.” Phasma glanced at Mitaka, who rolled his eyes. “Captain Phasma, I have urgent information.”

Phasma sighed. “Go on.”

“One of your Stormtroopers, FN-2187, has deserted his post and escaped the Finalizer.”

 _Shit_! The Finalizer had already been travelling through hyperspace for several hours. There was no way they could apprehend him now. _Unless_ …

“How did he escape?”

“In a TIE fighter, along with the prisoner Poe Dameron, the Resistance pilot captured in the attack on Tuanul. The escape attempt was successful, but the craft was shot down over Jakku.”

VADER swiftly disconnected from the briefing room, not wanting to be a part of the conversation that followed.

Phasma gulped down the last of her spring water. In all likelihood, both of them had survived. The TIE Special Forces fighter that they had stolen would provide them with enough impact protection to withstand a crash like that. _But for what_? Jakku was a desolate wasteland useless to all useful people. The only people who cared to inhabit it were mavericks, thieves, and starving scavengers. There was no point in turning back to chase them down; the planet’s raiders would do the hard work for them soon enough. 

The real problem was that FN-2187 was part of the unit assigned to deal with Kylo Ren. And if he survived, along with that Resistance pilot… _Shit on a ship_!

“Great,” Phasma muttered. “We have to deal with Kylo Ren turning into some kind of animal, as well as desertion within our ranks. General Hux, I thought you were in charge of political indoctrination, were you not?”

Hux glared at her. “Not within the stormtrooper program.”

“Right…” Phasma ran a hand through her hair. “Commander Mitaka, can you look up the records of the FN Corps, please?”

Mitaka pulled out his datapad. “Right away.” Phasma watched with a curious eye as he sifted through volumes of data like they were nothing but grains of sand. _Hux really did pick the right man for this job_. “General, Captain, I have something. FN-2187 had assigned names to two of his colleagues. He called FN-3765 Fiona, and the dead FN-5789 Flynn. Perhaps…” The Commander steadied himself. “Perhaps this was an early sign.”

“An early sign indeed,” Hux said, glancing at Phasma as he sipped his latte. “I don’t suppose we can do anything about this until we reach Starkiller Base. We still have… what… three hours to go? VADER?”

VADER gave no response.

“DAMN YOU!” Hux slammed his fist on the table, before composing himself enough to speak again. Mitaka jumped at the sudden show of ferocity, while Phasma stared into the distance. “You know, Commander Mitaka…”

Mitaka hesitantly turned towards the general, his face flushing under the artificial light. “What?”

“If your theory about Ren and lycanthropy is correct, it could bring about the end of the First Order.”

“Yes, General.”

“I think we - more specifically, you - should be the one to inform him about it.”

Mitaka’s expression changed from one of mild apprehension to utter dread. He said nothing.

Hux took another draught of his latte and set the cup down on the table once again.

“You know where to find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> Kylo raised an eyebrow. Mitaka felt the heat rise in his cheeks, embarrassed at the stupid theory. The disease was more of a myth than reality. After all, no one had actually witnessed a real werewolf. _How was it even biologically possible_? _How could someone endure such a quick and dramatic change_?
> 
> "Lycanthropy?"
> 
> "Y-yes, sir."


	8. Mitaka's Not Bait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitaka informs Kylo Ren about his condition.

Mitaka stood before the sick bay’s doors. His sweaty palms juggled the keycard as he took three shaky breaths. His whole body shook; the memories of those snapping jaws were still fresh in his mind and he did not want to encounter those again. He composed himself and opened the doors. 

He was greeted by the same sights as before, though there were quite a few more beds empty now. He picked up the murmurings of a droid towards the end of the room. Ren was there. 

Mitaka’s heart was throbbing in his chest as he grew closer and closer to Kylo Ren. Although he had heard that the man had been successfully sedated earlier on, he knew the anaesthetics would wear off soon enough. 

“Sir, remember these stitches are important!” the droid scowled as the former-Commander tried to reach for them again. 

“It burns, droid! Why does it burn?” 

“We’re running blood tests at the moment, sir, don’t worry. The results will get back to you shortly.”

Mitaka tried not to vomit as he saw the droid stitch up the bloody mess. He took off his cap and cleared his throat. Kylo Ren glared at him but to the man’s relief, his eyes had no strange glaze over them… no, they were just very angry. 

“A prisoner has escaped, sir,” Kylo was quiet so far. _I might actually escape unscathed_. “And… “

“And what?” 

“Sir, your heart rate has increased,” the droid quivered a little. 

Mitaka gulped.

“We have confirmation that FN-2187 may have aided in his escape.” 

“May have what?”

Mitaka's voice cracked. “F-FN-2187 may have aided in the Resistance pilot’s escape, sir.”

The rustle of plastic could be heard in the background; a droid was readying a sedative. 

The two men stared at each other for a minute. Mitaka had his eyes fixed on Kylo so that he wouldn’t be caught unaware, whereas Kylo had his eyes fixed on Mitaka to catch him unaware. 

“Anything else?”

“N-no, sir.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“There’s something nagging at your mind.”

Mitaka froze. 

“You know something about my condition.”

“It is only speculation, s-”

He flew into Ren’s grasp. Droids flurried around trying to calm down the fuming ex-Commander. Mitaka felt something sharp dig into his skin. 

“What do you know?!”

Mitaka felt his windpipe being slowly crushed, not by the Force, but by Kylo Ren’s bare hand. He gasped for air.

“Say it!”

“S-sir… “ Mitaka’s feet kicked about.

“Put him down, sir! You’re stretching your stitches!” 

Begrudgingly, the man was released. 

“Sir, I don’t know anything. It’s mere speculation… “

“What is it?”

“Lycanthropy.”

Kylo raised an eyebrow. Mitaka felt the heat rise in his cheeks, embarrassed at the stupid theory. The disease was more of a myth than reality. After all, no one had actually witnessed a real werewolf. _How was it even biologically possible_? _How could someone endure such a quick and dramatic change_?

“Lycanthropy?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Just… uh, I… it was just a thought, sir. Nothing else.”

“Who did you tell about this ‘thought’ of yours, Commander Mitaka?”

“General Hux, sir.”

Ren got up from his seat. Mitaka could have sworn that he looked taller, he just loomed over the poor man more than usual. He leaned forward, Mitaka retreated into his collar. He closed his eyes tightly, awaiting for the worst. What was Kylo Ren going to do to him now? Strike him? Bite him? Choke him... _again_?

Mitaka felt small puffs of air hit his face. _What the_?

He slowly opened his eyes to find Kylo Ren sniffing about his neck. 

“Sir… I-”

Ren sniffed around his collar for a good minute. Then he resumed a more upright stance. 

“I can smell him on you.”

“You can what now?”

The mild smell of a sweet latte, cologne and some fruity shampoo combined with the sickly scent of a berry flavoured conditioner was the aura around Mitaka. Ren could tell which scents belonged to him and which belonged to the shrewd General. 

Ren leaned forward again and sniffed once more. There was a plain smell, like aloe vera, too. Not to mention, a hint of metal. 

Mitaka was frozen on the spot. He didn’t know how to react. 

“You told Captain Phasma, too?”

“Yes?”

“You sound unsure, yet she was definitely in your presence.”

“How fascinating!” a droid began noting down this new discovery. 

Another droid took the opportunity to measure Kylo while he was standing.

“My! My! Sir, it appears that during your sedation you’ve increased in height!”

“I- what?”

“Exactly six inches, sir!” 

Mitaka and Ren looked at the droid in sheer confusion. So _that_ explained why he was casting a larger shadow than usual. Mitaka decided that maybe he was going to do some reading during the final hours of the Finalizer's trip through hyperspace. Perhaps there was more to his theory after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> "Do you have news from Jakku?"
> 
> "Yes, Supreme Leader," Hux said, bowing slightly. "But not the kind that you wish to hear."
> 
> "Go on," Snoke hissed. "Tell me. _Everything_.


	9. Hux Smells Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux holds an audience with Snoke.

Hux faced grey walls and a black floor. Kylo’s quarters were so gloomy, almost fit for a creature of the night… oh wait. That’s when he heard footsteps. _Kylo Ren_ 's footsteps. He quickly darted out of the room. The only thing that was there was his lightsaber, delivered by one of the medical droids. This had been a fruitless mission but he couldn’t spare a second longer.

As he ran down the corridor, he bumped into someone. He looked up.

Kylo Ren, wearing a black sweater and a pair of black trousers, growled in Hux’s ear. “Why were you in my quarters?”

 _Damn it_! _How did this man know_? Hux had managed to get quite some distance away from Ren’s room. He thought it best to deny that he had ever been there. The last thing he wanted was another incident like the one in the sick bay, especially when… _Wait, was Kylo Ren_ … _taller_?!

“I wasn’t in your quarters,” Hux said, attempting to hide the quiver in his voice.

Kylo Ren did not reply. Instead, he moved closer to Hux. The general stepped back, only to hit the metal wall of the corridor.

“Ren, I think you’ve forgotten your place. You have no right to… to?”

Ren sniffed around him. 

“That’s disgusting, Ren. I command you to STOP THIS AT ONCE!”

Ren continued to sniff. In the distance, a robotic voice seemed to snicker at him. _VADER_? _What the_...

“VADER, can you get this man to stop sniffing me? Please?”

VADER beeped and chimed. “Here I am, a repository of infinite knowledge and power… and you, General Armitage Hux, want me to stop a man from sniffing your cologne?”

“It wasn’t my best one!”

Kylo Ren pulled back. “Damn it, Hux, you weren’t wearing your best one?”

Hux’s eyes darted around the corridor. Ren had pinned him to the wall and had gripped him by his shoulders.

“Why were you in my quarters?!”

“How did you fucking know?!”

“Doesn’t matter, answer my question, Hux!”

“Careful with your temper, Ren. Especially in the public eye.” Hux’s green eyes shifted over Kylo’s shoulder. 

He turned around to face a small squad of stormtroopers, staring at the two of them. He released the general. 

“Get out! There’s nothing to see here!” Hux shooed off soldiers, he then returned his piercing gaze to Ren, “By the way, Snoke wishes to have an audience with us.”

“Did you mean, you wish to have an audience with Snoke? Is that why you’ve ordered the Finalizer to go to Starkiller, instead of hunting down that droid?”

Hux glared daggers at Ren. “Either way, just go to the hologram room once we’ve landed.” he shoved past the young Solo, leaving his shoulder sore. 

Less than an hour later, the Finalizer had entered Starkiller’s upper atmosphere. Hux took Kylo Ren’s command shuttle down, alongside Phasma and Mitaka. _If all goes well, that man will be no more_. The general tried not to smirk at the thought. _When the Supreme Leader finds out what vile atrocities this beast has committed, he will strike him down without a second thought_.

Hux led the way down to the Supreme Leader’s chamber. Everything he wanted was within his grasp. He could almost see stormtroopers bowing as he walked past, officers ready to do his bidding, and VADER finally caring to listen to him. _Or perhaps I’ll replace him with an entity that truly obeys me_. One conversation was all it would take.

The chromium double doors loomed large in front of them. All three were wearing their dress suits. Mitaka shivered in apprehension, while Phasma’s masked face stared into the distance. With a _hiss_ and a _clunk_ , the doors slid open. Hux strode into the room with both of them not too far behind.

A dim light filtered through a projector to create a macabre and murky representation of the Supreme Leader. From a distance, it was impossible to tell whether he was truly there; up close, however, one could notice the small ripples and glitches in his figure that gave the illusion of reality away. After a brief moment, the image of Snoke straightened itself and dug its wrinkled hands into its colossal throne. 

The three craned their necks up so that their eyes met those of Snoke. He looked down and reclined back in his throne.

“Do you have news from Jakku?”

“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Hux said, bowing slightly. “But not the kind that you wish to hear.”

“Go on,” Snoke hissed. “Tell me. Everything.”

“After returning from the mission, we have witnessed some… strange behaviour being exhibited by one of your commanders.” Hux straightened himself. “They have attacked numerous individuals, including First Order High Commander Mitaka and myself.”

Phasma stepped forward, bowed, and cleared her throat. “Supreme Leader, this commander attempted to murder Commander Mitaka. He did succeed in murdering one of my own Stormtroopers, FN-5789. Our efforts to restrain him contributed, at least in part, to Stormtrooper FN-2187’s desertion from our ranks.”

Mitaka also bowed before speaking. “General Hux had promoted me to a position on the First Order High Command to investigate this situation, Supreme Leader,” he said, stuttering slightly. “In between being attacked by said commander and discussing the situation with Captain Phasma and General Hux, I took the liberty to do some reading and analysis on what…” The commander’s eyes darted on the room. Hux glared at him. “W-what… might be…”

A pair of strange, silver pearls stared at him in the darkness. They changed and flickered as the hologram’s light did. They moved a little as they examined the trio before the Supreme Leader. _Eyes_. _They were eyes_. The signature _tapetum lucidum_ of an animal. 

“The… the cause… of this… s-situation?” Mitaka stammered, shuffling back. He pulled out a flashlight from his belt and flashed it at the source of light. _Where the hell did he get that from_? “Supreme Leader, I…”

Mitaka dropped his flashlight and sprinted to the other end of the room. Phasma pulled out her blaster and pointed it squarely at the man in front of her. Hux opened his mouth to yell, but no words came out.

The sound of a lightsaber igniting filled the room. Kylo Ren stood before the three as he emerged from the shadows. His footsteps were silent as he made his way to Snoke’s side. 

“Kylo Ren has already discussed his condition with me. The infection is well on its way on running its course. There will be no charges pressed on the attacks since they were… involuntary. Any questions?”

Hux felt his entire world collapse around him. Everything he had worked for, all those years of diligent service to the First Order - and it was all for nothing? _Damn Lor San Tekka_! _Damn Kylo Ren_! _Damn Snoke_ -

A strong, claw-like grip pulled at his throat. Hux tried to take another breath, but couldn’t. The world became a dim, murky blur. Snoke was Force choking him.

“Do you question my decisions, General Hux?”

“O-of course not, sir… “ his voice was reduced to nothing but a raspy murmur. 

He dropped the man. 

“Then we have nothing to further discuss. You’re all dismissed. Ren, you are to retire to your quarters and take the advised dosage of drugs the infirmary have prescribed to you. I expect you to attend the next meeting of the First Order High Command in four days’ time. The rest of you may continue with your duties until further notice. Turn the Finalizer back around and after the droid. We cannot let it escape.”

Hux sighed and trudged back to his quarters, defeated. He was going to have to think of another way to get rid of Kylo Ren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> Finn glanced at Rey. "I saw Kylo Ren."
> 
> “You mean, _we_ saw Kylo Ren,” Poe interjected, swinging through the corridors of the Millenium Falcon.
> 
> “Yeah, _we_ saw Kylo Ren, just as he was slowly turning into some kind of beast.”
> 
> Rey raised an eyebrow. “Who the hell is Kylo Ren?”


	10. Whatever Happened to Kylo Ren?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Finn, and Poe discuss what happened to Kylo Ren. Han is not amused.

The Millenium Falcon, Unkar Plutt’s prized piece of junk, sped like a bullet flying through the vast expanse of hyperspace. Rey, always in constant awe of the ship, loved wandering through its serpentine corridors, and after having picked up Han Solo and Chewbacca from the Eravana, she had more time than ever to explore the piece of Rebel history.

Now, though, Rey was seated at the communal table, alongside Finn and BB-8. They were several hours from the Resistance base on D’Qar, and with nothing to do but basic repairs - repairs Chewie insisted on completing himself. Han, meanwhile, had decided to shut himself off in the cockpit. He seemed to be unhappy about something, though Rey wasn’t sure as to what. 

Finn glanced at Rey. “I saw Kylo Ren-”

“Shh, Finn, keep your voice down. You don’t want to be screaming his name around here,” Poe interjected, swinging through the corridors of the Millenium Falcon and right into the space on Finn’s left. “He meant that _we_ saw Kylo Ren.”

“Yeah, we saw Kylo Ren, who happened to be slowly turning into some sort of beast.”

“Who the hell is Kylo Ren?”, Rey exclaimed, realising too late that she hadn’t kept her voice down. “Sorry.”

Before the three of them could even pretend that they were talking about something entirely different, Han Solo strode into the Falcon’s common room with his blaster in his hand. 

“Kylo... Kylo Ren?” he asked. Rey sensed from somewhere in the corners of her mind that he felt angry and anguished at the mere mention of his name. “What happened?”

“Finn, do you wanna... Finn?” 

“Yeah, sure,” Finn answered, somewhat uneasy. “It all began with an unscheduled excursion to Jakku...”

Finn rambled on about his deployment on that fateful night. Both Rey and Poe had heard the story before, but Han had not. Despite his reservations about whoever ‘Kylo Ren’ was, the smuggler seemed genuinely interested in what the former stormtrooper had to say, listening intently with every word.

Poe continued after a few minutes. “Unfortunately, Lor San Tekka didn’t make it. Ren got the better of him. However, he didn’t go down without a fight!”

“A fight?”

Rey raised a hand. “Hold on, I knew San Tekka.”

“You WHAT?!” Finn and Poe both exclaimed.

“Yeah, he was a pretty famous guy. Got bitten when he was young, learned to control his condition. Some people said it was rabies, others this thing called lycanthropy.” Rey watched Han’s face express levels of confusion she had never seen before. “Anyways, what it did was turn him into a feral beast every thirty days. A werewolf, I think, though I’m not entirely sure. He used to give me scraps of food every now and again, even though I worked for Unkar Plutt. He was a nice guy.”

Poe furrowed his brow. “Got bitten... a feral beast... Finn, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Poe, that can’t be-“

“You know that ‘beast-like behaviour’ you described?”

“...Yeah?”

“I think-“

“San Tekka infected Ren before he died.”

Han paused, incredulous.

“So you’re saying that my son is a kriffing WEREWOLF?”

Chewbacca roared from the cockpit, while BB-8 beeped in disapproval. After a tense few seconds of silence, Rey spoke. “Han, BB-8 tells you to mind your language.”

Han sighed and apologised to the droid.

“He’s your son?” Finn asked.

“Yeah, Ben Solo is my son. Didn’t you know that?”

“No, I didn’t.” The former stormtrooper glanced around the table before continuing. “You see, on the Finalizer, we were given strict orders to refer to him as Kylo Ren, and Kylo Ren only. Those who didn’t were sent straight to reconditioning, with no exceptions.”

 _So that explains things_ , Rey thought, though she was still confused as to why Han Solo’s son would want to join the First Order. 

“Oh my goodness, I gotta get to Leia-“

Poe stopped him before he could even make it to the corridor. “Han, we’re already going there!”

Han shook his head, his breaths audible as he silently lamented the fate of his son. He headed towards the cockpit, hoping to perhaps find some assurance in his friend. 

“Han-“

Rey reached out a hand, only to ungracefully slam him against the floor of the Millenium Falcon.

“Which one of you did that?” he asked, bewildered.

Everyone apart from Rey stepped back.

“I guess that was me.”

“Wait, you can use the Force?”

“The Force? What Force? This Force?”

Rey flicked her wrist. Han’s blaster flew out of his belt and into her hand, though she dropped it in pure shock not long afterwards.

“You’re joking,” she said. “You’re actually joking.”

Han Solo proceeded to lift himself off of the ground, only to stumble back down. Finn and Poe exchanged glances at each other. No one spoke.

This was going to be one long trip to D’Qar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> A knock sounded.
> 
> Ren could smell Hux on the other side of the door. His scent burned his throat as he breathed it in. A sickly sweet smell, something of a luxury.
> 
>  _Prey_.


	11. At Least It's Not Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren has an identity crisis.

Kylo Ren held his head in his hands. A new headache had emerged just under an hour ago, and it was already getting the better of him. A groan escaped his lips as he rose from his bed and trudged to the washbasin. Cold water had reduced the pain before. _Maybe I should keep a flask of it handy_ , Ren thought. _It could help if things get a little too much._

He ungloved his hands and washed his face, allowing the icy touch of the water to fully embrace him. He looked up at his reflection. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality. A stranger looked back at Ren, its tired, pale face staring back at him with almost entrancing eyes. There did not seem to be any visual differences, yet something - something Ren couldn't quite place - drew him to them. The brown felt as though it was more saturated, and his pupils had a certain sharpness in their shape. His mouth was slightly agape - and his teeth...

 _His teeth_. Kylo Ren peeled back his lips to reveal… _fangs_? Small, white-pointed canines glinted and glistened in the dim light. He gasped as he ran his tongue across them. They were real. They were actually real. What was happening to him? 

He adjusted his clothes, which were now a little tighter after his sudden growth spurt. Ren was changing, and not in a good way. His bones ached, and he had a strange kind of fever that came and went at the most inconvenient of times. He felt as though he could smell a thousand things at once, and the Finalizer's bright lights seemed to almost blind him, not to mention the fact that there now was this irrating, mild ringing in his ears that wasn't there before.

Then, there was the hunger. Kylo Ren found himself hungry almost every other hour. Nothing could sate his thirst either; however, that wasn’t what scared him the most. He didn’t care if he starved - he’d rather starve than go mad. Every time someone passed his quarters, he’d feel this urge to go after them, to chase them and… to kill them. He had this want - almost like a twisted craving - within him; a want to taste the blood of his victims, to sink his teeth into... _No_. Ren shook his head. This was driving him over the edge, right into the valley of insanity - and that truly terrified him. 

He felt so ravenous. His stomach burned like a furnace in his chest, yet no matter how hard he tried, Ren could not make himself eat anything. He lay on his bed and tried to sleep. _Maybe it's that. Maybe I'm tired._ He closed his eyes, wishing for some kind of peace and solitude, something that could get him away from whatever he was.

Unfortunately, Kylo Ren got neither of those things.

He awoke to find a knife held at his throat. A quick glance around made him realise that he was on the bridge of Starkiller Base, and without anything to hold; one careless mistake would mean a painful, agonising fall into the planet's reactor core. Ren's eyes trailed up the arm which held the knife, only to meet the furious gaze of an animal, whose golden eyes glowed straight ahead in the low light. He squirmed and struggled, only for the beast - the creature, the wolf-like being that the knight had no name for - to dig the knife in slightly, breaking skin. That thing that held him hostage was like nothing else that he had ever seen. It was human up until its canine head, almost disproportionately large compared to every other part of its body. It had large, fang-like teeth - uncannily like his own, Ren remarked - and a forked tongue lolling out of its mouth. The creature’s hot breath hit the back of his neck. He pushed against its clawed and clammy hands; surprisingly, the monster let him out of his grip, seemingly content with watching the man roll, helpless, onto the cold floor of the bridge.

It wasn't long before the dog-man tossed the knife aside and leapt onto him. 

“YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR DEFIANCE!” it roared, as Ren struggled to shove the creature off. 

Ren punched the creature, then yelled. "WHO DID I DEFY?"

“The moon beckons for your gaze! Give it to her!”

“What?!”

The beast released him. 

That was when Kylo Ren lost all control of his body. He felt himself lunge at the creature and rip its throat out with his teeth, watching in helpless horror as he tore the monster to shreds like it was no more than a piece of paper. Exhausted, he turned back and headed for the exit, only for the dog-man to get up, charge at him, and sink its teeth into his right shoulder. He didn’t even have time to scream as it pulled him back. It sunk its fangs in deeper and deeper, pushing through skin and sinew. Kylo felt its cold, slimy tongue lap up the blood in the gash it just made, prodding at strewn arteries and veins. He cried out when the wolf-like thing shook its head and widened the cut, only to let go once again.

It had finished tearing Ren apart before it had even begun, yet it left him in unimaginable agony. He felt hot tears sting his eyes as he clutched his wound tightly. The great gash burned like a raging fire, consuming every ounce of being that Kylo could muster.

“Don’t deny her," the animal said, almost mocking the pitiful sight in front of it. "And don’t deny yourself.”

Kylo Ren shot up from bed gasping for air, startled at what he had just witnessed. Cold sweat ran down his forehead as he reached out a shaking hand towards his right shoulder, revealing a healing bite. He sighed. 

He took a seat on the floor, cross legged, trying to meditate, trying to cast his mind back to what Snoke had taught him, yet he found no solace in his own thoughts. Something was nagging at him, something at the back of his mind.

_You're hungry._

He tried to dispel that thought.

_You need to hunt._

He covered his ears with his hands, trying to block out the voice calling out to him. 

_You’re hungry._

_You’re hungry_

_You’re hungry._

_Y-_

He got up. 

The headache returned, like a sudden, sharp blow across the back of his skull. Kylo Ren's head pulsed, and everything hurt. He stifled a wail as he trudged to the washbasin, only to feel hot, as though he were about to burst into flame. Instinctively, he took off his shirt; the soft fabric burned his skin, like a church set ablaze, but it did not do anything. He was burning up. _Is this my punishment?_ Ren wondered, walking towards his bathroom. He needed to take a shower, to wash off the sweat and the remains of blood that stained his skin.

Cold water ran down his back and trailed down his spine. Ren, letting out a shaky sigh, wiped the cold tears from his cheeks, sniffling a little. Regret was woven into every thought that crept into his head as he turned, allowing the water to wash the haze out of his eyes. It felt like the rhythmic drops of rain hitting his skin, like the salty smell of the seas around Ahch-To, like _home_. Everything rushed back. The fires were warm, the porgs chirruped in the mist and murk... but he remembered that stormy afternoon on the cliffs, that masked figure surrounded by shadows. Then the anger, the clash of lightsabers, the collision of green and blue. Luke Skywalker's face was anguished and hopeless, as if Kylo - no, _Ben_ \- was no more than an unworthy traitor, too far gone to be redeemed. Ren muttered some unintelligible curse, and glanced down.

_What the kriff is that?_

Something was poking out of his ankle. The skin around it was raised and a little scabby, looking like a sharp piece of wood caught in a splinter. He knelt down, reached for it, and slowly pulled it out. The thing looked like a slightly curved claw - like a dog's claw - and felt smooth like metal. _What happened_? _Maybe I should take my meds again_.

Ren turned the shower off and stepped out, taking a towel from a rack with his now-steadying hands, and drying himself off. Seeing as he was going to be confined to his quarters for the rest of the day, the next one, and the one after that, he felt he didn’t need to wear his usual attire. He grabbed a pair of trousers and put on a loose black jumper; something that would let him breathe for once, as he could feel his fever already return.

He approached the washbasin with a glass of water. As he filled it up, he caught sight of what he thought was his reflection. For a brief moment or two, he didn’t see himself, but a pair of silver eyes staring back at him, set in a long face vacant of any emotion. Sighing, he glanced back at the creature and watched its pointed ears twitched slightly. He was going mad. Ren took the second dose of pills and swallowed it down with water, feeling unusually parched. He reached for his pitcher and refilled the glass, raising it to his lips.

A knock sounded. 

Ren could smell the scent of General Hux on the other side of the door. His scent burned his throat as he breathed it in. A sickly sweet smell, something of a luxury. 

_Prey._

He sniffled and composed himself. He reached for the door. That’s when he felt it, this pull. His heart throbbed in his chest as his mouth began to water. _Oh God! Oh God! What was he thinking?_ He could hear Hux’s breathing on the other side; he wanted to silence it, to make it go away. Gripping the keypad to his own door tightly, he felt his insides twist and churn into a knotted soup. It took all of his reluctant strength to bring himself to open the door. He prayed that he was able to control himself. 

Hux was indeed on the other side. The general looked up at Ren with slightly widened eyes that gave away the fear that he felt, a fear that Kylo did not like. He peered into his mind and saw something strange.

“Kylo Ren,” the general began, nervous. “We’re going to be entering Jakku’s upper atmosphere… soon.” 

“Anything else?”

The general stared at Ren, a little taken aback. 

“General Hux? What is it?” 

“Your voice, Ren. Listen to it."

“My voice?”

That was when Ren realised that his voice was off. It vaguely sounded like his, but it was closer to a beast-like growl than his regular, deep tone. There was a gravelly feel to it, a roughness that rumbled in his chest with every word he spoke. A mere utterance of a syllable seemed to shake with thunder. 

He saw the general’s face twist and constrict in silent fury. Something like fear swept over his eyes. Ren could smell the adrenaline kick up a notch in Hux’s veins. 

_Prey._

His grip on the doorway tightened slightly. Hux backed away a little. 

“Has the Supreme Leader only kept you alive to kill us all?!”

“What?”

“Are you his tiger on a leash? Just waiting to be let loose on all of us?”

“Hux, what are you talking about?”

“You fucking animal, Ren. You fucking creature… “

“You know nothing!” Kylo hissed, baring his pointed fangs.

Hux readied his blaster. 

“Come near me, and I’ll shoot you straight through the head.”

Ren hesitated at the threshold. 

“I don’t know what’s happening to you, and a part of me doesn’t want to know. Just..." Hux said, fear once again taking over him. "Just keep your distance.”

He left. Kylo closed the door and leaned against it. It had taken most of his willpower to not tackle Hux to the ground, and... _Wait, did I just contemplate eating him?_

Kylo Ren held his head in his hands, not wanting to think about what was wrong with him in the slightest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> "It seems that Lor San Tekka bit the right person," the general began. "Kylo Ren ticks all the boxes. Anger issues? Check. Combat skills? Check. Affinity for the Dark Side? Check." Hux sighed. "And it's not like we can start asking our troops to collect as much Jedi material as they can. What you the Supreme Leader say about that?"


	12. Let's Delve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux, Phasma, and Mitaka realise that the First Order is utterly screwed.

“He’s going to kill us. He’s actually going to kill us.” 

Mitaka watched Hux glare at the holographic visualisation of his research into lycanthropy. Over the past few days, the commander had collected information from the First Order and Imperial archives about Ren’s condition, as well as asking VADER to connect him to various sources around the galaxy who claimed to have dealt with it at some point in their lives. 

The results had been… concerning, to say the least. So concerning, in fact, that the word _concerning_ seemed to be an understatement. All the evidence so far had pointed to an inevitable transformation into a _werewolf_ , some kind of beast-like creature, every month; a transformation that would result in a massacre of at least a dozen or so individuals _if they were lucky_. It seemed to be almost invincible. Bruises would heal in seconds, cuts would reseal themselves, and they did not seem to react much to any kind of pain. Light could disorient them, but since the Finalizer was so bright, Mitaka reasoned that it would not make enough of a difference.

His research had shown that the only thing that could kill a werewolf was silver, which just so happened to be in every single electronic device on board. Ren had probably become acclimated to its presence, which meant it was ineffective, to some degree. Holy artefacts could deter it, but conveniently the definition of _holy_ seemed to only include Jedi artefacts and not Sith ones. Mitaka had spent a good portion of a day with Phasma searching every Stormtrooper on board for jewelry and heirlooms that could ward Ren away when the time came. Their search had only found a single silver chain engraved with the emblem of the Jedi Order; enough to distract a werewolf, but not enough to send it away or kill it. The offending piece of jewelry had belonged to FN-3765, who both recognised from the sick bay incident. Phasma had _dismissed_ the stormtrooper afterwards, if _dismissed_ meant being shot in the back of the neck.

In short, the First Order was well and truly screwed. As this was Ren’s first transformation, it was impossible to predict when he would suddenly and violently morph into a werewolf. Mitaka and Hux had discussed evacuating the Finalizer, only to reach the conclusion that Kylo Ren, or worse, the Supreme Leader, would eventually find out. Evacuating the First Order High Command would only lead to the same problem, as Kylo Ren just so happened to be a member of it too. The only people who seemed to benefit from Ren’s new condition were the Resistance and the New Republic, organisations that surrounded themselves with Jedi material. The fact that lycanthropy seemed to be intrinsically linked to the Dark Side of the Force did not help at all.

General Hux tried not to spill his latte as he shook a little upon laying his green eyes on the disturbing piece of art that flickered before him. A hologram of ancient Mandalorian artwork revealed a creature which Hux had never seen before. It bowed before a silver disk, a moon. It was of half wolf, half man. A head of a vicious hound lay on top of the shoulders of a human. One of the creature’s legs looked normal, bent in front of it like any kneeling man. Whilst the other lay behind it, crooked and covered with dark fur, long talons extended from its paw-like feet. Its arms were of the same nature, one human, and one of a more wolf-like nature, they were pressed together as if the cursed creature was in prayer. Hux also noted the tail. The long feathery tail that dragged on the ground. It was not like any dog’s tail, it was of a more feline nature, long and flexible. 

It was at this moment that Mitaka realised Phasma was currently informing Ren about the droid’s escape from Jakku. He desperately hoped that the commander hadn’t transformed into a werewolf yet. Anger was one of many things that could hasten a werewolf’s transformation, and Kylo Ren was a very angry person indeed.

Mitaka jangled the silver chain in his hands before placing it on the briefing room table. Hux sighed, sipped his latte, and scowled.

“It seems that Lor San Tekka bit the right person,” the general began. “Kylo Ren ticks all the boxes. Anger issues? Check. Combat skills? Check. Affinity for the Dark Side? Check.” Hux sighed. “And it’s not like we can start asking our troops to collect as much Jedi material as they can. What would the Supreme Leader say about that?”

The commander thought for a while. He stared at the hologram, the eerie artwork still on display. A prophecy of what was to come. 

Phasma entered the room with a loud sigh escaping her lips. She placed the chromium helmet in her hands on the table in front of her and took a seat.

“Captain Phasma? H-how are you-”

“I hope you’ve still got your silver chain, Mitaka.”

“Phasma, why do you look so shaken?”

“There’s something deeply terrifying about Ren.”

“I think we’ve already established that!” Hux chuckled.

“His wound has healed. Completely.”

“What? But he was due to have his stitches removed in a week!”

Mitaka picked up his datapad and changed the holographic display to visualise a werewolf’s healing factor.

Phasma stepped back at the sight. “You’re not saying…”

“Ren’s condition allows him to heal at an almost unnatural speed.” Mitaka started to pace the room. “I’ve created a simulation of what were to happen if Ren fully transformed.”

A model of a creature which appeared to be of immense size materialised before them. It proudly stood on two digitigrade legs with large claws sticking out from its feet, though it was slightly hunched over. A regal large mane framed its face which had wide but sharp canines that stuck out of its mouth like tusks. Dexterous hands had each finger end in a long talon. However, its eyes were the most terrifying aspect, devoid of any emotion apart from the fury of a bloodthirsty predator. A long tail swished about behind it, swaying side to side like a snake. It landed on all fours and snarled. Mitaka really went all out on the idle animations. 

“Gosh!” Phasma exclaimed. “Nevermind. Continue?”

Mitaka tapped on the tablet’s screen and adjusted a few settings. “Here on the Finalizer, we mainly arm our personnel with blasters. But here’s the thing. It would only take a fully transformed Ren five seconds to fully recover from the impact of a plasma bolt.”

The simulated creature was shot by a holographic laser beam. It doubled over and growled in pain, but seemed to recover in no time at all. Hux was speechless at the sight of it, while Phasma had risen from her seat.

Mitaka took in a deep breath. “Phasma, your quicksilver baton would injure Ren for ten seconds before he fully recovers.”

A holographic Phasma in full armour stabbed the werewolf. It fell to its knees. The creature held the spear in its large, paw-like hands and grinned menacingly at Phasma. In ten seconds, the projection of Ren was back on his feet.

“And Ren’s lightsaber?” Mitaka pulled up a cross-section of the weapon. “That’s difficult to say. The First Order archives don’t reveal much about it, but it seems as though it was linked to the Jedi before the Supreme Leader made his alterations. It’s a powerful weapon, perhaps the most powerful we have at our disposal.”

“Could it kill him?” Hux asked, before realising what he had just said.

Mitaka tried to ignore the implications of the third most powerful individual in the First Order committing high treason with a single sentence. “Given his healing factor, I highly doubt it,” the commander said, before adjusting more settings on his datapad. “You see, the early links to the Jedi could classify it as a holy artefact, but its modifications make it less effective than, say, a Jedi weapon. It’s caught in the middle.”

Phasma fixed her eyes on the three-dimensional representation of Ren’s lightsaber. “How would it be useful to us in a fight?”

“Well, when Ren transforms, his items of clothing and anything on his person are discarded. That includes his lightsaber.” Mitaka pressed a button that started a fast-forwarded animation of Ren’s transformation. The other two people in the room glared at the holographic images in terror. “If we were able to get his lightsaber and attack Ren with it, he would be significantly weakened.”

The projection displayed a simulated Hux stabbing Ren with his own lightsaber. Hux sneered at the sight of it. “How much time do you think this will buy us?”

“Difficult to say, given the complex nature of both the weapon and its wielder. Five minutes at the very least. Ten, if we’re lucky. Enough time to hide.” Mitaka glimpsed Phasma and Hux’s terrified faces. “However, if Ren manages to get a hold of his weapon…”

“It would make him significantly stronger?” Phasma answered. Her eyes were fixed on the hologram, which now depicted a werewolf Ren wielding his own lightsaber. The beast-like creature howled, startling all three of them.

Mitaka rounded the table. “You’re quite right. It would.” The commander looked down, unsure of what to say next.

Hux stepped forward, staring at Mitaka through the blue light of the simulation. “How long would this last?”

“Well, my best estimates point towards…” The commander gulped. He had no idea how to phrase this. “Ten to twelve hours.” 

The projection of the beast gave out a roar that made Hux’s blood freeze. Phasma’s face became even paler at the thought of it. Mitaka looked down at the table and didn’t look back up.

That was when the doors slid open to reveal a masked Kylo Ren. He looked at the hologram and then at the roundtable trio. The table wasn’t actually round, but he didn’t care. They were frozen on the spot, staring at him with wide eyes. He walked past them and went over to the coffee machine. He could feel their eyes burn through his back. The silence was sickening and only added to the ringing in his ears.

“E-evening, Commander Ren.” Mitaka quivered where he stood. He clumsily shoved the silver chain into his trouser pocket.

Kylo glanced over his shoulder, he looked at the hologram closely. He felt this strange sense of familiarity upon laying eyes on it. 

“What’s this then?” Kylo leant back onto the counter as he reached for the coffee machine in the corner of the room, pressing the button marked _Triple Espresso - Commander Ren ONLY_.

“Well, it’s a holographic simulation of your condition, Commander Ren. I thought it would be useful to do a few days’ worth of research to inform… inform… “ Mitaka found that he could no longer speak, Ren’s masked glare seemed to have fixed him in place, petrified. 

“This looks nothing like me,” he said. 

“Yes, well-”

“General Hux,” Kylo interrupted, glaring at the general in front of him. “I sense… an unease about my appearance.”

Hux didn’t say anything but everyone knew exactly why he was subtly cowering in the corner, Ren’s eyes glowed in the low light with more intensity than ever. Not only that, but when directed to your face, you could feel your eyes burn slightly and your blood run cold. It was as if he possessed the glare of a gorgon. He didn’t need to use the Force, his eyes alone could paralyse any foe.

“Commander Ren, your voice… what happened?” Phasma asked.

The only response she got was a low, guttural growl, something that sounded like it came more from a beast than any human being. Mitaka shuddered. Was this Kylo Ren, or was this… someone… something… else? A tsunami of utter dread swept over him. He felt as though none of the research and preparation was going to save them now.

“Send in the First Order High Command. I wish to call a meeting… immediately.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
>  _You're hungry_ , a voice inside of him said. Kylo tried to fight it off, only to have it scream louder inside of him. _You're hungry, you need to hunt_. Kylo shook his head, raising his hands to his ears. _You're hungry, you need to hunt... you need to kill_.
> 
> _You need to kill. Kill. KILL._


	13. That Briefing Room Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren calls a meeting. Things don't go as planned...

The First Order High Commanders filed into the room mere minutes after Kylo Ren had given the order for them to reconvene, though not in a particularly orderly manner. Some raised an eyebrow at Ren’s sudden change in height, though his more striking silver eyes were shielded behind the monolithic face of his mask. Not long after, the Knights of Ren marched down a nearby corridor, their thundering footsteps getting louder as they approached the room; Ren had summoned them too, more as a show of personal power than anything else. The Knights dispersed upon arrival like a hungry pack of wolves, swarming the seated commanders as if they were a herd of frightened deer. Once everyone had entered, Kylo rose from his seat. The Finalizer’s briefing room fell silent, every eye staring at the masked man.

“As some of you may have heard, there have been a few… incidents on the Finalizer.” Ren paused, his masked face scanning the room for any signs of dissent. Many of the commanders at the table quivered under his unyielding, emotionless glare. Kylo smirked under his mask. “These incidents have distracted us from our mission to retrieve the droid containing the map to Luke Skywalker.”

Kylo felt a certain uneasiness within himself. The lights of the briefing room seemed bright. _Too bright_. For some strange reason, the scent of the ship’s fuel seemed to be more pungent than ever, and a growing sickness swelled in his stomach.

Ren reached for a datapad: Mitaka’s datapad, to be exact. With a flick of his wrist, he scoured the commander’s mind for the passcode. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before. He lowered the lights in the room and cast a hologram onto the surface of the table as the rest of the commanders shook in fright. They glanced around them, wondering what had come upon the man who led them all. 

“Certain reports by certain people…” he growled, glaring at Hux, Phasma, and Mitaka, “...have claimed that I was the instigator of these incidents.” The three quivered in terror as their faces grew paler by the second. Kylo Ren searched for two surveillance tapes and a holographic simulation, marked “BITE”, “SICK BAY”, and “REN SIMULATION ONE”. Within seconds, the three files appeared as three-dimensional projections on the table.

Kylo quickly glanced away. The blue light of the projection was making him sick, but how? Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was…

A commander whimpered in the background. Pryde, was it? Kylo Ren reached for him with the Force and constricted the man’s neck. “SILENCE!” The general struggled to breathe under Ren’s grip as the man snarled. “I will not have you interrupt me,” he growled. Pryde choked and spluttered, his face contorting into one of utter terror as Kylo clenched his wrist. “Understand?” The general struggled to choke out a reply. “UNDERSTAND? ENRIC PRYDE, ENSIGN OF THE IMPERIAL NAVY, GENERAL OF THE FIRST ORDER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” Just as he was about to kill him, Ren loosened his grip and put his arm down. The commanders closest to him heard him grunt as he gazed at the projection.

Something was tugging at his brain. Pain zinged up and down his spine, a kind of pain that would not go away. Kylo Ren felt whatever it was tug harder and refuse to let go. He slammed his fist on the datapad in a sudden, violent motion, cracking the screen and smashing the flash drive. The tapes began to play and the simulation began depicting Ren’s transformation. All around the room, dozens of pairs of eyes glared at the hologram in absolute horror.

“I called you all here to inform you of one thing...”

He felt like the room was spinning around him. Ren pressed the button at the back of his helmet to remove it, only to see a mass of squirming commanders gape at him in fear. A pair of silver eyes stared back at them, with slit pupils and an uncanny shine. They were almost iridescent. 

“C-Commander Ren?”

His heart was beginning to pound in his ears. A loud ringing filled the room, causing him to feel as if he had lost his balance. Kylo felt as if he were going to throw up from the nausea and dizziness that overcame him. The projection began to jitter, no doubt due to the fact that Ren had destroyed the device that had cast them onto the table.

Hux rose from his seat. “Ren, are you able to continue this-”

Kylo Ren pushed him aside with the back-breaking velocity of the Force. He groaned and held his head; the ringing was unbearable now. A glitching, stuttering holographic representation of Lor San Tekka rose from the surface of the table. It seemed to almost glare at Kylo Ren with piercing, venge-filled eyes. Ren shrieked at the sight of the man who had bitten him and clawed at the hologram, attempting to kill it, end it, eliminate it for good. _You’re hungry_ , a voice inside of him said. Kylo tried to fight it off, only to have it scream louder inside of him. _You’re hungry, you need to hunt._ Kylo shook his head, raising his hands to his ears. _You’re hungry, you need to hunt… you need to kill._

_You need to kill. Kill. KILL._

Ren’s voice had become a beastly roar. His face glowered at the rest of the commanders in the room. He could have sworn he made someone faint by the way he glared at them. The half-beast, half-man opened his mouth to speak.

“I was the instigator of these incidents.”

Nothing but pure, animalistic hunger filled him now. 

His mouth began to water as he struggled to swallow down the copious amounts of spit. He could feel the hunger burn in his stomach. He licked his lips. He tried to restrain himself, to maintain civility, but Hux just looked so helpless now. His mouth was slightly agape. A low, rumbling layered each heavy breath. His tongue anticipated the taste of blood. 

However, this body wasn’t built to hunt. All he had were dull nails and even duller teeth, he wasn’t fast enough and he wasn’t overpowering. 

Kylo glanced up at the pandemonic scene around him. He watched the Knights of Ren reach for the keypad at the end of the door, only to find it locked… _from the outside_. The commanders who hadn’t fainted yet squealed and swarmed towards the door. Phasma put on her helmet and activated her quicksilver baton, carrying the slumped body of one of them towards the only exit. Mitaka attempted to call VADER, but to no avail.

“GET US OUT!” a general cried as he slammed his fists against the doors.

Mitaka reached for something in his trousers, hoping it was still there. He didn’t pull it out, but yelled into the keypad instead. “FOR KRIFF’S SAKE, SOMEONE OPEN THAT KRIFFING DOOR!”

Hux tried to look away but Ren beckoned for his gaze. 

He felt his body suddenly get hot. He was burning. His hands crunched and he noticed claws tearing through the top of his gloves. His body was getting hotter and hotter and more and more painful. His ribcage tightened making each breath a desperate struggle. The cowl round his neck suddenly felt like it was choking him. He screamed out in pain as the arches of his feet seized up, creating the worst foot cramps he had ever felt. Claws pushed through the front of his boots, soon his shoes were reduced to misshapen messes on the floor as large paws stood where his feet once stood. His back arched once more and he felt something tear. 

Ren covered his eyes with his changing hands, it felt like someone had just thrown salt in his face. Everything burned. Some generals who dared to look behind them saw tears of blood trail from his eyes. He removed his growing hands and out fell two now-brown eyeballs; they hung to his face by the thread of their optic nerves before his clawed hands pulled them out entirely. They rolled around on the table in their own puddle of blood. One general screamed in horror as Ren looked at her with new, pale grey orbs, pupils reduced to slits. He snarled and roared out in pain as his body twisted. Blood was pouring out of his mouth as his jaw repeatedly dislocated and relocated on his face. Sharp teeth tore through his gums. He mouthed pleas for mercy, but only incoherent snarls and hisses left his bleeding lips. The palms of his hands thickened into paw pads. His legs cracked and reshaped. 

His back was hunched over as he tried to maintain balance. Everyone watched in horror as the back of his shirt split, along with his skin, revealing dark fur underneath and the shape of a lengthening spine, which could be seen moving and growing under his new hide.   
He howled in agony as he shielded his sensitive eyes with his shifting arms, shreds of skin and clothes hung from them like decaying branches. Hot tears fell from his cheeks, which were striped with small cuts. Fur poked out from the gaps in his flesh. His shadow revealed a writhing body, seemingly struggling against itself. A silhouette of a conflicted creature. The battle between the higher civilities and the primal hunger. 

The wolf was winning. 

The wolf had won. 

Ren cried out as his jaw made the choice to dislocate and stay that way. His skin felt itchy, itchy as all hell. He clawed at his face, peeling off the skin to make way for a muzzle. In exhaustion he collapsed onto the floor. His legs convulsed with the rest of him as they made final adjustments. He gripped the edge of the table, the metal claws scraping against the shining surface, sullying it with his blood. At last, a snout pushed through. A long tongue hung out as he panted. It was almost over. The air burned as he breathed in with new lungs and his reshaped heart felt like a thumping engine in his chest. 

The creature that now stood before them whined as it felt the last of its body crack in place. It rested some of its weight on the table as the nausea began to fade a little. Its pointed, horn-like ears were flat against its head as its eyes darted around. It looked disorientated. 

For the briefest of moments, Mitaka thought he saw Kylo Ren in the creature’s eyes. It whimpered, head pressed against the ceiling and its body hunched in an uncomfortable position. 

“Ren?” Mitaka called out, the creature looked at him

“What are you doing?!” Phasma whispered.

“Kylo Ren?” Mitaka took a tentative step forward. 

The creature reared its head back and wailed. It howled its despair, and cried out to the heavens. Everyone’s blood ran cold as the creature shook its head and looked at them with hungry eyes. 

“SOMEONE OPEN THAT KRIFFING DOOR!”

The hunger was overwhelming now, and the room was full of prey. 

The generals were climbing over each other. Everyone bashed on the door. 

“GET US OUT!”

“PLEASE!”

“THERE’S A MONSTER IN HERE!”

The stormtroopers outside heard vague murmurs of the unholy shrieks that came from the meeting room. 

“Sounds like someone is getting a lecture!”

“Yeah, Ren did look pretty pissed when he entered the room.”

“How do you know? He’s wearing a mask.”

“Oh, I just assumed.”

Hux pushed through the manic crowd and reached for the intercom by the scanner. Shaky hands tried to grab ahold of the buttons. 

The monster pulled its face into a twisted grin. It climbed onto the table on all fours, slowly creeping closer and closer to the flock of generals. Hux tried not to flinch as Ren grabbed hold of a general behind him. 

He heard an awful crunch and bloodcurdling cry. Body fluids splattered against the walls and window. It also got all over Hux’s overcoat. 

In the midst of the chaos, the biblical scene of a pile of scrambling bodies, General Hux saw Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. Like a glistening jewel among the rags and blood, it shined in the light of the broken holograms. He climbed over the others and slid under the table. He prayed to whatever divine being was watching over him. Then he ran. He ran like he never did. His coat flew behind him and he sprinted for it. 

Ren got the same idea and leapt. Everyone watched as the race commenced. Though the lightsaber was within arm’s reach for both of them, this was going to be the most intense struggle. The demon dog snapped its jaws and swung its tail, sending Hux flying across the room. He got out his blaster and shot at it. The bright lights stunned Kylo for a second, a second Hux couldn’t waste. He lurched forwards, on his hands and knees, he crawled under the table. The creature jumped onto the table once more and made a strange hissing sound. Hux watched, to his dread, as its face slowly came into view. It looked more terrifying upside down. Its reddened teeth on display in a maddened snarl. He looked to the lightsaber, it was just under a metre away. He could get to it. He could. He just needed to time it right. 

The creature snapped at him. It thrusted its jaws towards him, he ducked, making it hit the chair on the other side. It roared some curse before reaching for him with a taloned hand. He swept under it and launched himself to the right. The creature disappeared from view. Hux could hear its footsteps above. 

As he reached from under the table, Ren reached from above. The two hands were only millimetres from their saving grace. Only one could wield the weapon. Hux snatched from under the beast’s nose. It cursed and once again disappeared from view. Hux stayed under the table, praying for an opportunity to escape. He had a good view of the chaos. The complete and utter anarchy as people pushed others towards the jaws. More blood sprayed everywhere. Hux could taste the iron as drops fell onto his lips. The shadow of the gargantuan beast shook off the remains of its victims. Its bloodlust could never be sated. 

Mitaka saw a window: the bodies parted, and he had a path to under the table. He slid under and joined Hux. 

“How do you activate it?” Hux whispered.

Mitaka had no idea. He looked to Phasma, who was preoccupied with hauling bodies towards the exit. She was currently in a tug of war with Kylo, who was slowly eating an unconscious general she was trying to free from his jaws. 

The general fiddled around with the weapon, his fingers slid up and down the hilt frantically in search for a button or just… something! 

A clawed fist broke through metal and came crashing down. It grabbed Hux by the right shoulder. _Oh come on!_ He chucked the lightsaber over to Mitaka. He juggled it like a hot potato. Suddenly, a red blade shot up and pierced straight through the table. 

“STAB HIM THROUGH THE TABLE!” Hux screamed.

“I DON’T WANT TO KILL THE COMMANDER!”

“DOES IT LOOK LIKE WE HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE RIGHT NOW!”

Mitaka sighed. He brought the saber down, only to thrust it back up. A whine broke through the screams. 

“DO IT AGAIN!”

Mitaka nodded and once more, brought down the lightsaber and then shoved it straight through the table. They heard a yowl and watched the shadow of the wolf leap up from the table and onto the floor. Though it had little room to sprint, it could still leap from surfaces and crawl. Both Hux and Mitaka clung onto each other as they saw the wolf land on all fours and turn around. Its piercing eyes glared at them with the fury of a god as it peered under the table. 

“Ren, please don’t do this… “

It spat at them before lurching forwards. Mitaka waved the lightsaber around in front of him. The creature backed away, only to leap forward once more. 

That’s when Phasma saw a golden opportunity. She lay to rest whatever poor soul had met their end at Kylo’s teeth, she then readied her baton. If she was going to die, she was going to die giving this beast a good bollocking. 

She roared and shoved her weapon into the creature’s thigh. It cried out and with a swipe of its claws, sent Phasma slamming into the counter. It took out the spear and tossed it aside. Hellbent on making Phasma pay, it crawled forward. 

Her hazy vision saw a black mass get closer and closer. She scrambled backwards as the creature stood directly above her. It removed her helmet. Phasma’s bruised face grimaced as it bared its teeth. It grabbed her by her hair, bringing her neck to its teeth. 

“Kylo Ren!” Mitaka rose from under the black table, lightsaber in hand, “Don’t do this!”

“Mitaka! What the fuck are you doing!” Hux yelled.

“I know you’re in there somewhere!”

The creature turned around, glaring daggers. 

“Ren! There’s another way! Who knows, there could be a cure!” 

It looked at him, curiously. 

“Please, let her go!”

The wolf dropped Phasma.

“Good,” Mitaka shakily spoke. 

“I’m going to go over to the keypad and release these generals. Stay there.”

He slowly edged around the dogman, who followed him with its silver eyes. His left hand reached for the intercom. He pressed for as long as he could and then a small ding sounded. 

“WHOEVER THE FUCK IS OUTSIDE, UNLOCK THIS DOOR!”

The stormtroopers on the other side whipped their heads around only to see the door window full of faces pressed up against the glass and a vague silhouette of something. Something big. Fists bashed against the metal and frantic muffled screams called out for the trooper to hurry up and punch in the access code. 

Generals spilt out and scrambled back onto their feet before running away at frightfully fast speeds. Like scattering rats, they dispersed into various rooms along the hall, hoping to find some means of sanctuary. The two stormtroopers followed suit as they lay their eyes on the hulking beast.

It remained eerily still, why was it cooperating? 

Hux crept from under the table. He looked at the creature who snarled at him. He shrieked and stood by Mitaka’s side. Why was it listening to Mitaka? 

“You know don’t you?” Mitaka pulled out the silver chain from his pocket and hung it loosely on his neck. “You’re not cooperating, you’re afraid of the silver.”

It hissed and began to back into a corner. 

“Ren, I won’t hurt you, if you don’t hurt me.”

It paused, as if in thought. 

It then leapt over them and bolted out of the room. It stood at the threshold, grinned and then… disappeared.

“HE CAN GO INVISIBLE!” Hux wheezed. 

“Apparently so, we’re going to have to follow him.”

“How?!”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to race an invisible werewolf to the Finalizer’s Bridge.”

Hux felt like he was going to have an aneurysm any minute now. 

They hurried down the halls, Mitaka being careful not to burn himself or anything else with the lightsaber. Phasma had joined the motley crew after recovering from her fall, baton at the ready. 

“Where is Ren?” she looked to the others.

“That’s the thing we don’t know.”

“What do you mean? A nine foot tall animal is pretty easy to spot.”

“Not an invisible one.”

“A what now?”

“It seems that the disease has… mutated or something. The records didn’t say anything about a camouflage ability,” Mitaka pondered. 

“Well, we are fucked unless by some miracle we can beat him to the Bridge and initiate a lockdown.” Hux held his blaster in his quivering hands. 

They darted around the corner, only to be met by a bloodsoaked corridor. Entrails were strewn across the floor and two poor sods were slumped on the side of the wall, headless. 

“Holy shit.” Mitaka froze. 

Hux pushed him on. They continued on their quest to the bridge. They couldn’t see anymore of Ren’s pawprints that they had been tracking. The trio began to feel panic pump through their veins.

“Mitaka, how do you even know Ren will be heading to the Bridge?”

“That’s where the ‘herd’ is. I read that werewolves will head for wherever the smell of blood is strongest; where the people are. Besides, we need to get there anyway.”

Phasma felt her stomach drop. They needed to outrun an apex predator, a nimble, fast and deadly predator. They pressed on, running until their feet ached and their legs felt like jelly. Mitaka hoped Ren hadn’t reached the Bridge yet. 

The Finalizer’s Bridge was just ahead of them, the silver doors called out for them. Phasma slammed her keycard on the scanner. After what felt like an eternity, the doors hissed and creaked open. They launched themselves into the room. 

Hux headed for the command panel while Mitaka closed the doors and Phasma activated the locks. Everyone looked beyond confused. To be fair, the trio did look ridiculous: Hux had blood splattered all over his face and his ginger hair had fallen over his eyes, Mitaka looked like a bootleg sith lord with Ren’s lightsaber in his shaking hand and a silver chain hanging loosely around his neck, as for Phasma, she just had her helmet off. 

“We need to initiate a lockdown of the entire ship.” Hux addressed the personnel at the panel. 

“You need to have confirmation from Commander Ren, sir.”

“Commander Ren is incapacitated.”

“No he isn’t, his heat signature suggests he’s alive and well,” VADER chimed in, “And heading this way.”

“EXCUSE ME!” Hux shrieked before composing himself, “Look, we’ve just had to escape the jaws of death so if you would please initiate a lockdown so that the entire population of the ship DOESN’T GET EATEN ALIVE, I would very much appreciate it.”

The poor guy just looked at Hux, scared and confused. 

“DO IT!” 

“All personnel on the Finalizer, we are commencing a lockdown. Please remain in whatever room you are in until further notice.”

Hux breathed a sigh of relief as did Mitaka and Phasma. That was until a loud bang echoed throughout the entire Bridge. 

“IT’S COMING!”

“What is?”

“KYLO FUCKING REN!”

They could hear its claws scrape against the metal as everyone began to slowly edge towards the balcony. The doors shook. Phasma pointed her baton as the entrance. Mitaka held the lightsaber in both hands. Hux had his blaster aimed firmly at the double-doors. A squad of stormtroopers stationed at the Bridge were ready to engage. The doors shook once more. 

Everyone held their breath as something on the other side roared. Then those roars turned into cries… very human cries. 

“That’s Ren’s voice,” Phasma lowered her weapon slightly. 

“That can’t be right, the change is supposed to last ten hours at least.”

“W-where am I?” the voice on the other side asked. 

“Ren?”

“Hello?”

“Kylo Ren?”

“General Hux? Is that you? Gah! The ringing in my ears won’t stop!” 

“What the-”

“Where am I?”

“You’re near the Finalizer’s Bridge, sir.” Mitaka began to walk towards the doors. 

“What happened?”

“You can’t remember a thing, sir?” Hux placed an ear on the door, “It’s him alright!” he whispered.

“No… I can’t!” Ren’s voice quivered. 

“It’s all clear, troopers lower your weapons but don’t sheath them.” Phasma turned to the squadron. 

“We’re going to open the doors, sir!” Mitaka gripped the sword in one hand and placed his keycard on the sensor. 

The doors opened and everyone gasped. 

Mitaka turned around to face a hound straight from Hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> "I thought droids didn't have feelings?" Hux asked.
> 
> "They don't."
> 
> "But-"
> 
> "It's a touchy subject, General Hux," VADER said. And don't you have priorities to be dealing with?"
> 
> Hux looked around in confusion at the absolute carnage around him. "Priorities? What priorities?" Then it occured to him that yes, he did have priorities: one, to not die; and two, to not die when the monolithic, bestial form of a werewolf - a werewolf that was Kylo _Fucking_ Ren - loomed right over him, with silver eyes that seemed to stare right down into his soul.
> 
>  _Shit_.


	14. Don't Tear Out My Spleen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pandemonium continues.

The past week on the Finalizer had been pretty rough. From werewolf bites to the whole fiasco in the infirmary, Ren sniffing his colleagues’ cologne to his entire kriffing transformation in the briefing room, VADER, like everyone else on the Finalizer, had seen _everything_. He was genuinely surprised that the crew had managed to last this long.

Sensing a drop in serotonin levels, VADER chimed in as everyone attempted to flee the Finalizer’s Bridge. “Hey everyone, hope your morale is up! Here’s a quick joke to… to...” 

The droid entity paused upon seeing the grotesque, beast-like face of what once was Kylo Ren.

“Kylo Ren, are you really going at it with the weird Dark Side stuff again or what?”

The werewolf growled in response, then proceeded to tear out every single electronic device he could find on the bridge, as well as around ten console officers standing in front of them, much to the dismay of an underpaid technician somewhere in the back.

“I don’t get paid enough for this,” he whimpered, before Kylo Ren - if you could even call him Kylo Ren anymore - decided to rip out his spleen from his body.

Everyone else screamed and began to gather near the doors, which conveniently happened to be locked, while VADER sighed in response. “Yeah, no-one does.” Ren proceeded to tear out yet another command console from the Finalizer’s bridge. “Kylo Ren, can you stop that? It hurts me, on an emotional level.”

“I thought droids didn’t have feelings?” Hux asked.

“They don’t.”

“But-”

“It’s a touchy subject, General Hux,” VADER said. “And don’t you have priorities to be dealing with?”

Hux looked around in confusion at the absolute carnage around him. “Priorities? What priorities?” Then it occurred to him that yes, he did have priorities: one, to not die; and two, to not die when the monolithic, bestial form of a werewolf - the werewolf that was Kylo _Fucking_ Ren - loomed right over him, with silver eyes that seemed to stare right down into his soul.

 _Shit_.

Hux recoiled from his icy glare and grabbed onto Mitaka’s shoulder like his life depended on it. The beast did not move, but seemed to stare more intently - as if it were toying with him.

“Hux? General Hux? Can you stop doing that? It hurts,” he whimpered, only to be met with the general’s signature scowl.

“It certainly hurts less than if I threw you at him.”

Mitaka glanced at him nervously. “But… But-”

“Alright, I’m going to throw you at him.”

The Commander screamed as he was promptly launched at Ren. The wolf’s jaws began to unhinge as it grew closer and closer to Mitaka’s face. “HUX, YOU BASTARD!”

“Commander Mitaka, this is entirely unprofessional,” Hux screeched, as poor Mitaka scrunched his eyes shut. He felt himself being lifted, and began to cry. “HOW DARE YOU, YOU IMP!”

At that very moment, the man was catapulted to the left. He had just been tossed to the side like a ragdoll. Hux was in deep shit now. Kylo Ren had made a beeline for the general, and with no human shield to protect him, he was at the wolf’s full mercy.

That was until Mitaka pressed Ren’s lightsaber against his abdomen, and with one swift flick of a switch, ignited it. In a burst of fury, he sliced the lightsaber straight through his torso and to the right, removing a good chunk of his back from his body. The general barely managed to avoid the searing red of the blade as the wolf’s body fell on top of him to his left, wincing at the sheer weight of it. It took Phasma, Mitaka, and five other High Commanders to lift the animal off of him.

“Don’t ever call me a 'bastard' again,” Hux said as he got up.

Mitaka sheepishly looked at the general, then at the wolf’s body. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” His eyes darted to Phasma, who motioned for him to go. “EVERYONE, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!”

The surviving High Commanders - of which there weren’t many - rushed towards the doors, which were still locked. Phasma sighed. “VADER?”

“Yes?” the droid entity answered.

“Unlock the doors.”

“You know what? Fine. I’m actually going to do it. I’m actually going to listen to you, because one of my best technicians has just had his spleen ripped out, and that was not on.”

The double doors hissed open and the High Commanders swarmed out of the room like a flock of frightened porgs. Phasma led the group, while Hux with his blaster and Mitaka with Ren’s lightsaber trailed behind, checking the back. VADER made sure to lock the doors of the Finalizer’s bridge behind them.

“Welcome to emergency mode.” Something that sounded vaguely similar to the Kahoot theme started to play in the background, retraumatising the High Commanders with memories of the First Order’s mandatory public education system. “The escape pods are here, here, and here, and the walkways have been illuminated for your convenience. First Order High Commanders, as well as Senior Technicians, and other… important people will find the directions to the Emergency Bridge-”

Hux grimaced. “Damn it, VADER, why did you have to tell him our exact location!”

“-illuminated in a very vibrant red. Thank you for your service on the Finalizer, to the First Order, and to the Supreme Leader. Just in advance, I, the Venerable Assistant Droid Entity Reborn, would like to offer my condolences.”

Everyone was stunned into silence as the reality of their situation sunk in. A couple of High Commanders fainted on the spot.

“Just leave them,” Phasma said. 

Hux, who considered the potential loss of his fellow colleagues too detrimental to the First Order - even though he hated them - protested. “What?”

“Do it.” VADER said, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Palpatine's.

At this point, morality had long been thrown out the window in favour for survival. Everyone needed to get out of there and if that meant leaving their comrades behind as distractions, then so be it. 

“We have ten minutes to get to the Emergency Room.”

“EVERYONE, KRIFFING SPRINT LIKE YOU HAVE A STORMTROOPER PHYSICAL EXAMINATION RIGHT NOW!”

They all bolted down the halls, too scared to stop and too paranoid to scream. Fear had glazed over everyone’s eyes as they climbed over one another, shoved people aside and even dragged dear friends on the ground. Some people were too good to lose. This strange shared frenzy entranced all. Not a single person had an independent thought, all were focussed on getting as far away from Ren as possible. 

Ten minutes wasn’t enough time, however. Soon enough, the faint figure of the werewolf that was once Kylo Ren appeared at the edge of the corridor, just as the group of petrified High Commanders were nearing the entrance to the emergency bridge. 

“GO! GO, GO, GO!” Hux yelled, as he fired his blaster without looking behind him. Kylo Ren only snarled and ran faster. 

“VADER?” Mitaka asked, panting and gasping for air. “Rave mode. And full brightness, please.”

“On it.” The already-loud music grew even louder, and something started to play on top of it. _Not Sweet Dreams, please, not Sweet Dreams_ , the general thought, trying not to grimace at the discordant harmony and unsynced beat of the two songs. The corridor turned into a cesspool of light, blood, and shit music. Kylo Ren stopped in his tracks and whimpered, giving the High Commanders just enough time to file into the Finalizer’s emergency bridge and secure the doors.

“Are we safe now?” One of them asked, about to collapse.

Phasma sighed at the inevitable prospect of them having to run across the ship again. “No.”

Everyone in the room - the High Commanders, plus a few droids, monitors, and mechanics - looked at each other, almost incredulous. It was Hux who dared to break the silence.

“Do we have something we can board up these doors with?”

A mechanic from the back shook her head. “Afraid not.” She eyed their horrified faces with a look of pure confusion. “Why? What’s out there?”

As if on cue, the beast that once was Kylo Ren growled.

“You don’t want to know.” The general paused, either in deep contemplation or utter dread. “Everyone, backs against the doors, NOW.”

Everyone in the room wearily obeyed Hux’s orders, and pushed as hard as they could on the door. It wasn’t long before Kylo Ren turned up, however, and started banging on the steel like some kind of savage.

“General Hux,” a High Commander whimpered, leaning against the cold metal with all her weight. “He’s going to break down the door. What are we going to do?”

The doors groaned as the beast slammed against them once more before crying out in frustration. 

“Everyone, just keep pushing down! There’s enough of us to overpower him!”

The whole group turned to face the makeshift barricade they had created and with all their might, pushed against the wolf’s rage. The creature hissed and roared. Fists punched the doors, making the group jolt and falter for a second or two. 

Then silence.

But not trustworthy silence. 

No one dared to press an ear on the metal to hear for it. 

“Step away from the barricade.”

“Get-”

The High Commander was suddenly pulled to the metal as Ren’s wolven fist burst through and wrapped his long, lupine fingers around her neck. Her head crashed into the door at full force, causing her vertebrae to give way to a chilling crack. She didn’t have time to register her own death as she was let go to slide down the side, head bent over her right shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “GO, EVERYONE, GO NOW!” Hux yelled, motioning for Phasma and Mitaka to take the lead. “FOLLOW THEM!”
> 
> “But what about you?” Mitaka asked, afraid. “General-”
> 
> “Go. I have a plan.”
> 
> The mechanic at the back, frozen in place by utter terror, stood absolutely still. General Hux couldn’t spare any time telling her to move. He sprinted towards the front of the Finalizer’s emergency bridge and yelled at the few monitors who remained in their seats. “Turn off the artificial gravity generators!”
> 
> “What? I’m sorry, General, but… the gravity generators?”


	15. It's Not Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux realises the gravity of the situation.

Kylo Ren, with the dead body of a High Commander limp in his beast-like arms, gave a menacing smirk that made those still standing in the room tremble with absolute fright. He returned his silverish gaze to the body. With the wound on his abdomen not fully healed, he decided to utilise whatever life force was left in the dead woman. That and his hunger wasn’t sated just yet. So, he ripped out her sternum with his unyielding jaws and clawed the rest of the way to her heart. From there, he removed the organ and devoured it. Blood splattered everywhere as he bit down. 

The rest of the High Commanders squealed at the sick sight of it, covering their ears to block out the squelch of a crushed human heart being ripped apart by a set of fangs, and closing their eyes to stop themselves from seeing pierced veins and arteries leak out crimson red from every hole. Everyone, that was, except Phasma.

Sensing an opportunity, she whipped out her blaster, readied her quarterstaff, and charged at Kylo Ren. The bestial creature’s eyes widened as Phasma let out a cry whilst her baton came crashing down. Only to stop halfway through its course by Ren grabbing her wrist. In a vice-like grip he began to slowly crush her wrist, tendon by tendon. She’d have lost her right hand if it weren’t for the High Commanders, who, led by Hux and Mitaka, began to simultaneously fire their blasters at the werewolf.

“GO, EVERYONE, GO NOW!” Hux yelled, motioning for Phasma and Mitaka to take the lead. “FOLLOW THEM!”

“But what about you?” Mitaka asked, afraid. “General-”

“Go. I have a plan.”

The mechanic at the back, frozen in place by utter terror, stood absolutely still. General Hux couldn’t spare any time telling her to move. He sprinted towards the front of the Finalizer’s emergency bridge and yelled at the few monitors who remained in their seats. “Turn off the artificial gravity generators!”

“What? I’m sorry, General, but… the gravity generators?” a petty officer began, before turning around to see the beastly form of Kylo Ren sink his jaws into the crook of the mechanic’s neck and take out a good chunk of her jugular artery. The officer gulped in fear before darting her eyes back at the general. “Right on it, sir.”

Without so much as sparing a glance at the officer to his side, Hux pulled out a flashlight from his belt and shone it squarely at the werewolf’s face. The beast that was once Kylo Ren began to stumble for a few seconds; it squinted under the torch’s light and raised its fur-covered arms to shield itself. A serpentine hiss left its black lips as they peeled back to display its set of stained teeth. 

“Unamo, I need the generators off now,” Hux said. “How long?”

“Thirty seconds, general.”

As if on cue, Hux’s flashlight began to flicker. _Shit, he can use the Force!_ The general yelped, tossed the torch aside, and wrenched Unamo’s blaster from her belt. He aimed both blasters at the bestial silhouette in front of him as he backed away as far as he could.

“Twenty seconds.”

Ren snarled at the general, halving the distance between them in a split second. Hux watched Thanisson, one of Unamo’s officers, attempt to sprint away, only to be caught in the werewolf’s steely grip. He didn’t have time to scream as Kylo’s talons made short work of his neck, spraying volumes of blood all over the command room.

“Ten seconds.”

Hux gripped the triggers of his weapons tightly. The werewolf bared its teeth and grinned, as if daring him to fight. _How could Snoke allow such an abomination to live?_ , he wondered. The general paused. _Snoke. Perhaps I should…_

“Five seconds.”

Hux snapped back into reality as the demon-dog closed in on him.

“Four.”

Ren hissed, sticking out his forked tongue.

“Three.”

The general shivered under the werewolf’s shadow.

“Two.”

Unamo glanced at the bestial form behind her.

“One,” she stuttered, shivering.

Kylo Ren lurched at the petty officer in front of him. Before she could react, he ripped her half. The foul crunch of her spine being removed from the lower half of her body was more than enough to make Hux gag. 

It was at this moment that he realised the gravity generators were still operating. Hux staggered towards the console and pressed a button with his wrist.

_Zero._

At that very moment, Hux felt as though all weight had been removed from his body. He attempted to spin on his heel, only to find that he was floating upwards and away from the ground. The beast had begun to float too. 

_It was smiling._

Hux tightened his grip on the blasters. 

_He was smiling._

_Ren was smiling._

The general pulled the triggers. Two plasma bolts hit the werewolf in the chest, causing it to howl in pain. Droplets of blood from the impacts swirled around Ren’s bestial form, mixing with that of his previous victims. Hux shot the blasters again, and again, not discarding them until the weapons needed to recharge. His back landed against the window while his feet dangled in mid-air.

He turned and tried to reach for the ground, only to find himself hovering several metres above it. _Shit. I should've reached for something._

The wolf glared at him with eyes of flame. Its large tusk-like teeth snapped at him, a threat. It had its feet pressed against the floor. Hux knew where this was heading and frantically tried to move out of harm’s way. It launched itself towards him like a shark ambushing a seal, rising from the depths and heading straight for Hux. He watched as the creature unhinged its jaws, ready to clamp down on his throat at full force. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate. 

“Kylo Ren. I thought now might be a wise time to discuss your condition…” a holographic projection of Snoke began, before pausing at the carnage in front of him.

The creature turned around to face him, its long fingers were curled around Hux’s throat. It then returned its gaze to Hux, to find its fingers being slowly lifted by the Force. The animal cocked its head to one side before being slammed into the ground. 

“Ren, I cannot have you attempt to murder a general on his own ship.”

It whined. 

“What happened here, General Hux?” the Supreme Leader asked. 

Hux glared at Kylo Ren. “This happened.” Snoke raised a holographic hand, but Hux interrupted him before he could do anything more. “High Commander Dopheld Mitaka has created a data file on the effects of the condition of lycanthropy, which just so happens to be what Commander Ren is affected by. We suspect his… anger issues, for want of a better term, caused an early, unpredictable transformation.”

The Supreme Leader glowered at Hux. “Turn the gravity generators back on, general,” he commanded, only to see the general float gingerly in the near zero-gravity environment. Snoke used the Force to send him flying towards the console.

"One second-"

“NOW!” he yelled, sending Hux flying towards the door.

The general sighed.

This was going to be a very long twelve hours indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> "Foolish child," Snoke said. The Force was useful for many things, not least communicating with Kylo Ren when he happened to be... incapacitated. "What have you done?"


	16. Snoke's Spilled Caffeine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snoke spills his coffee. He's not happy about it.

Supreme Leader Snoke sat in the Throne Room of the Supremacy, the Seat of the First Order and the home of its Capitol on Coruscant, with an americano levitating by his side. He was in the middle of contemplating the nature of the Force itself when he was interrupted by disturbances, disturbances that seemed to consist of Kylo Ren deciding to transform into some kind of beast-like creature and wreak havoc on the Finalizer, just as it was attempting to track down the droid with the map to Luke Skywalker. To make things worse, Ren was attempting to murder all of his best high commanders when he needed them most. If inconvenience had a face, it would be the one scowling before him.

"Foolish child," Snoke said. The Force was useful for many things, not least communicating with Kylo Ren when he happened to be… incapacitated. "What have you done?"

Kylo Ren seemed to snarl harder upon hearing the Supreme Leader’s words. "What have you done to deserve that throne?" he replied.

In a fit of rage, Snoke released the Force grip on his americano and let it fall to the ground. The glass mug shattered as coffee spilled around it. He tried to compose himself. To remind himself that the true Ren would not defy him like this. The creature was nothing but a body for the boy’s anger. 

"Why did you allow yourself to be bitten by Lor San Tekka?"

"I-"

"He was rebel scum, you son of Han Solo! He was old, weak, and frail. If it wasn’t for your insolence, you would have gotten away with the droid, and both him and the Resistance pilot would have been dead."

"You don’t understand, I couldn’t-"

"You’ve failed, Kylo Ren." Snoke raised his hand, trembling. "You killed twenty-six people. You killed Steve. Steve McGeeve was the best radar technician we had, and you ripped him in half. YOU’VE FAILED!"

The pinned down werewolf whined with its ears flattened against its head, slightly confused at Snoke’s words. "Who was Steve again?"

"You know Steve. You’ve always known Steve."

"But-"

"You don’t deserve to hear about him now. I’ll tell you later, in front of your friends from the High Command."

Ren - could Snoke even call him Ren anymore? - whimpered, pausing for a few moments, as if contemplating what to say. "Why are you keeping me alive, then?"

"Because the Force compels me to."

It held its tail between its legs as it stared at the ghostly hologram. 

Snoke scowled at the beast in front of him. "You have twelve hours to not kill anyone on this ship. And try not to leave this room, please, although if you do want to torment the generals and High Commanders, as I know you like to do, just… just do it. Just don’t tear them in half when you do. Understand?"

Ren whimpered.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

"That will be all. "

Snoke disconnected himself from the holographic conversation and made for his quarters. He tried not to wince at the spilled americano on the ground as he walked past.

Someone needed to get the Supreme Leader a new coffee.

And fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met by Moonlight_ :
> 
> The signature chime of the intercom echoed, followed by the signature nasally voice of a certain general.
> 
> "This is General Hux!"
> 
> "How do we know you're General Hux?"
> 
> "Because..." The audio crackled slightly. “Because I’m the only ginger here!”


	17. That's Not a Wolverine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitaka arrives at the Stormtrooper training complex.

Dopheld Mitaka, clutching Kylo Ren’s lightsaber in one hand and Phasma’s Death Star-shaped stress ball in the other, limped his way towards the entrance of the Finalizer’s Stormtrooper training complex. The pitiful few High Commanders, technicians, mechanics, and monitors who had managed to survive the onslaught trailed behind him, grabbing onto each other with clammy hands, trying to deal with everything that they had just seen. 

_It wasn’t every day our superior turns into a scary man-wolf_ , Mitaka thought. _And that’s ignoring the fact that he killed dozens of his own subordinates._ He was genuinely surprised he hadn't lost his sanity yet. However, he knew he wasn’t going to recover quickly from this. The things he had seen would scar a person for two lifetimes, and to know it was _Kylo Ren_ , a man that he’d see every now and again, doing all of this? He wouldn’t be able to see him in the same way again. 

So when Mitaka rounded the corner and saw the thousands of Stormtroopers within the complex cowering in fright, all he could do was sigh. Phasma must have told them all about what happened - and what happened in the briefing room was enough to override thirty years’ worth of indoctrination, even in the First Order’s most seasoned fighters. A few of them had their blasters aimed squarely at the entrance, as if ready to shoot Kylo Ren down if he ever had the nerve to come down here, but Mitaka knew better. It would take a fully-transformed werewolf, as Ren was now, five seconds to fully heal from a single blaster shot. They’d only be able to stun him for a quarter of an hour at best and a few minutes at worst, and not long enough to stop more people from getting killed.

The last of the small group of survivors filed in. Mitaka glanced up at Phasma, who was commanding a unit of Stormtroopers guarding the door. She signalled for them to shut the doors and reinforcements, and to return to their posts.

“You lot!” the captain said, addressing the crowd of soldiers in the main hall. Formalities didn’t matter at this point, not when a beast was roaming around the corridors of the Finalizer. “I want you to set your blasters to stun, and point them at the door. You-Know-Who could be coming here any minute now, and if he can rip Steve in half, he can rip anyone in half.”

Reluctantly, the Stormtroopers obeyed. Phasma walked over to Mitaka, who quivered.  
“Whatever you do, don’t let him get out of here. We can’t lose him,” she turned to address the whole group again, “We’re going to see if we can keep him in this space.”

“Yes, Captain!”

Everyone, now assured with some vague plan, organised themselves around the room. Stormtroopers placed themselves at the doors and along the sides while the rest backed them up and took cover under shadows and equipment. Hearts thumped in unison as they awaited for the creature’s arrival. 

The signature chime of the intercom echoed, followed by the signature nasally voice of a certain general.

“This is General Hux!”

“How do we know you’re General Hux?” A trooper aimed his blaster at the speaker.

“Because…” The audio crackled slightly. “Because I’m the only ginger here!” 

Phasma replied through the intercom. “We… we can’t see you, sir.”

“Oh for kriff’s sake! VADER, activate the video feed!”

VADER was nowhere to be heard. 

“VADER! This isn’t the time for games!” Hux exclaimed. “He’s hot on my tail!”

The droid entity was silent and for once, Hux was concerned for the A.I. 

Then they all heard something that sounded like a sniffle. 

“VADER?” asked Phasma.

“VADER?” Mitaka tentatively looked up to the speakers.

“ _Wuuuuuuh-huh-huuuuuuuuuuuuuuh-huh_ ,” the droid entity sobbed.

“Oh great, VADER’s speakers have been damaged!” Mitaka exclaimed, before frowning slightly. “Or maybe… maybe he’s just upset.”

“What the kriff do we do now?”

“You can start by letting me in! It’s clearly me. I'm General Hux!” he screeched. “OH MY... LET ME IN! LET ME FUCKING IN! SWEET MAKER! OPEN THIS DOOR!”

Fists pounded against the metal as Hux screamed. 

“Right away, sir!”

Something growled in the background, something low, rumbling, and thunderous. Everyone waited with their weapons ready. A trooper shakily activated the keypad. The searing silence of anticipation was broken by the hiss of the releasing locks. The doors parted and light spilt into the place. Along with a figure. A dark figure tumbled onto the floor. They didn’t wait for the shadow-creature to get back up. Everyone gave it all they got. A cacophony of blaster bolts ricocheting off the walls and everyone’s berserker-like cries filled the air. Once the smoke settled, they waited. It didn’t get back up. 

_Thank the Maker._

Then they realised that they had just stunned none other than General Hux, who lay on the ground with a singed overcoat. 

“Shit.”

“Really? That’s all you’re going to say?!”

“What have we done?”

“It’s Pryde’s fault! He started it!”

“My fault?” squealed Pryde. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m at the back of the room!”

Mitaka, quivering, clenched the Death Star stress ball even tighter. “We’re so screwed.”

A stormtrooper closed the doors solemnly. The entire party just stared at the unconscious body that had its face ungracefully smushed against the floor. Phasma sighed. She was going to have to lug his body to a safe spot, wasn’t she? 

“Out of the way. I’ll deal with this.” 

She took his arms and dragged him across the floor. His shoes squeaked against the surface as everyone watched.

“Is he dead?”

“No… “

“Fingers crossed,” someone chuckled, before having the back of his head slapped by a superior. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“Dickhead,” Phasma mumbled.

The whole room remained silent. This was both awkward and terrifying. Awkward because they had almost shot their general to death, and terrifying because that meant that Ren was still out there. At large. 

“What do we do now?”

“Keep focused. He’s nearby.”

Thudding footsteps could be heard on the other side. Their blood turned to solid ice. Shivers ran up spines and breaths were hitched. Waiting. The footsteps grew closer but quieter too. He was getting ready to ambush them. They knew it. Closer and closer he grew. A guttural growl rumbled in their chests. Mitaka, overcome with a sudden bout of courage, approached the door and listened in. 

He scrunched up his face in fear, confirming that _he_ was on the other side. Mitaka whimpered. It wasn’t his day to die. No! They were ready. They had a plan! 

“I’m going to open the door.”

“Okay. Ready, everyone?”

“Yep.”

Blasters were cocked and steadily aimed at the door. Mitaka’s hand hovered over the keypad. 

“Do it.” Phasma unsheathed her baton. 

It burst through, pouncing on Mitaka who managed to wriggle and writhe just enough to avoid its jaws. Everyone shot at it as they had done to Hux. Blaster bolts ripped through the air, and voices screeched and roared. Mitaka lurched forward and away from under Ren. He ignited the lightsaber once more and clumsily swung it at the creature’s face. It howled in agony and swiped its claws. The commander dodged Ren’s attack with moderate grace. Feeling cocky, Mitaka tried to take another strike. Only to be Force-choked. 

It was Phasma’s turn at the beast. She rolled her eyes and struck it with her baton, distracting it and buying Mitaka enough time to make a quick escape. Everyone kept up the barrage of bolts and fury. Soon, he was overwhelmed and yielded. 

_Holy shit! It actually worked!_

“What was that?” the Stormtrooper nearest Mitaka muttered.

The trooper next to them turned aside. “Some kind of wolverine-”

“That’s not a wolverine,” Phasma said, cautiously approaching it. It was almost as if she could read their mind. “It’s a werewolf.”

“What?!”

“But-”

“A wolverine is an ugly bear-thing. A werewolf is…” The captain paused, sensing movement. “Check if it’s truly out, Mitaka.”

The poor commander gulped. “Why me?”

“‘Cause you’re nearest to it, sir.”

He begrudgingly approached the unconscious mass of muscle and fur. Its eyes were closed, saving Mitaka from having to look at that ghastly silver glare. He prodded the thing with his foot. It didn’t move. _Okay, this was new_. He poked it again. Nothing. 

“It’s out!” 

“Yay!” The whole room cheered. 

Then Mitaka was thrown to the other side of the hall. Everyone watched his body fly over their heads and slam into the wall several metres across from them. Some winced as Mitaka crashed into the metal and fell to the ground. Then they turned to face Ren. He rose back onto his hind legs and roared. 

They all scattered all over the place as the giant wolf hissed and snapped at their scurrying feet. Then Ren saw Hux. Easy prey. It made a beeline for him. 

Hux’s eyes fluttered open, only to meet those of Ren.

“Where… _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!_ ”

“ _RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!_ ”

The wolf raised a hand in the air, ready to claw his eyes out; Hux flinched and whimpered under its shadow.

“Commander Ren.” The voice of the Supreme Leader echoed loud and clear in the open hall. “What the fuck did I just tell you ten minutes ago?!”

The wolf lowered his hand and grumbled a curse, releasing Hux from his grip.

“Sorry about the mess. It appears your commander is in a state right now.”

“Yeah right,” a random stormtrooper blurted out, before being smacked in the head by his own blaster. “Sorry, sir.”

“Dickhead.” The Supreme Leader muttered, before he composed himself. “Commander Ren, you are to not devour any souls aboard this ship.”

Mitaka saw a certain ginger man get up and look around, confused, before glancing at Snoke. “Supreme Leader?”

“General Hux.”

The general’s eyes darted to every single high ranking official in the training complex. “Commander Ren?”

“General Hux!”

“Captain Phasma?”

“GENERAL HUX!”

“Lieutenant Mitaka?” Mitaka scowled at Hux. “Oh, you’re a commander now. Sorry.”

“GENERAL HUX, STOP THIS MADNESS!”

“My overcoat-” Hux began, before the Supreme Leader slammed him against the floor. “Snoke, what the kriff?”

“General Hux, I was in the middle of a disciplinary speech! Never interrupt me again.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Dickhead," Snoke muttered, only to be met by Hux's signature scowl. "Anyways, Ren, when I give you orders, as your Supreme Leader, I expect you to carry them out, werewolf or not!”

The animal whined.

“You are under my leadership! Disobedience is inexcusable, are we clear?”

“ _SssOooWwwRrrYyyEee._ "

Hux's eyes widened. “Oh my God! It can talk!”

“What did I just say about interrupting me?"

The general sighed, and shook his head as if to apologise.

“You have no idea how much you have ruined our chances of obtaining that droid. Not only have we lost it, we now have reduced numbers and low morale! You are a commander, not a wild animal! Act like one.”

The wolf backed away from Hux, but not before establishing it was still in control by snarling at everyone else. The room parted to let the werewolf out of the room; it trudged out on all fours, its tail, hung low, trailing behind. A stormtrooper yelped as Ren snapped at her before exiting through the doorway. 

As much as Snoke wanted to deny it, he knew that more were going to die by the time Ren changed back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> It seemed as though the entire Resistance had left their posts to watch the Millenium Falcon descend upon the skies of D’Qar. Well, the Resistance sans General Organa, who remained in her quarters. Han Solo’s arrival had sent shockwaves throughout the Rebel Alliance; it had been the prime topic of discussion ever since the broadcasts came in. Everyone seemed overjoyed at the news, but Leia did not know how to react. Things hadn’t ended well between them.


	18. Your Son's a Killing Machine!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia finds out about her son's condition.

It seemed as though the entire Resistance had left their posts to watch the Millenium Falcon descend upon the skies of D’Qar. Well, the Resistance _sans_ General Organa, who remained in her quarters. Han Solo’s arrival had sent shockwaves throughout the Rebel Alliance; it had been the prime topic of discussion ever since the broadcasts came in. Everyone seemed overjoyed at the news, but Leia did not know how to react. Things hadn’t ended well between them.

“General Organa?”

A voice - a _stranger’s_ voice - broke the silence within Leia’s manse. It wavered slightly, almost hesitant; yet, there was a gentleness, a kind nature to it. 

She turned around to face a young girl. An assuring smile was on her face but Leia could make out the traces of a melancholy furrow on her brow. 

“I… I have news about your son?”

“What is it?” she put on a welcoming face and allowed the girl to take a seat, she’d never seen her before but she could tell she was a good character. 

“Your son, Ben Solo- I’m sorry, I’m not sure how to… “ Rey suddenly felt her eyes well up a little bit. Why was this so hard to say? Something overcame her, a sadness. However, it wasn’t her sadness… no… this feeling of isolation and guilt didn’t belong to her. What had she to be guilty about?

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Sorry about this,” she wiped away a tear quickly. Rey took in a deep breath and tried again, “Your son, Ben Solo, he has been infected with lycanthropy.”

Leia was silent. 

Rey watched as she fell into a chair, stricken with grief. Han Solo stepped through the door, visibly shaken.

“We’ve lost our son forever,” he said, though Leia gave him a glance that meant more than words.

“No.” She remembered the last time she spoke to someone with lycanthropy. _San Tekka._ There was hope. There was a way to get him back. “We can still save him. Me. You.”

“Leia…”

“There’s still Light in him. I know it.” 

Han sighed, bowed his head, and stepped back. Poe Dameron entered the room alongside another stranger.

Leia turned to the pilot. “San Tekka’s dead, I know that from the broadcasts you’ve sent us, a shame. It’s good to see you’ve retrieved the map and that you’re safe.”

“Thank you, General.”

“Tell me how it happened.” As far as Leia had known, none of the tapes had mentioned lycanthropy in the slightest.

Poe was taken slightly aback. He looked about for a second or two, before composing himself to speak. 

“Lor San Tekka, before he passed away-”

“More like before he was murdered,” the stranger at Poe’s side spoke up, anger and conviction glowed in his eyes. 

Poe continued. “Lor San Tekka bit Kylo- Ben Solo.”

Leia looked at them, incredulous. _Lor San Tekka_ did this? She didn’t know he had it in him. What could she do now? San Tekka was her best bet at finding a way to console her son on his new-found condition.

A thunderous howl echoed in her mind. Ben. Her heart went cold as she heard the sonorous cry of the wolf. She closed her eyes and sighed. Her head hung low as the call began to fade. 

“My son… “ she muttered, a quivering hand covered her face as she thought. 

Like lightning, it struck straight through her soul. What had become of her son? What atrocity had ill fate thrust upon her? What could she do? 

“I need to reach him.”

“What?!” Han placed a hand on her shoulder, “You can’t do that, he’s dangerous!”

“He’s my son!”

Leia removed his hand and stormed out of the room. She was going to reach out to him and if it meant hauling him here than so be it. She couldn’t lose her boy to the Dark, no, she wouldn’t allow it to happen.

That evening she took it upon herself to reach out to him.

She sat on her bed and took in a deep, long breath. As much as she wanted to speak to him in person, she couldn’t do that. Han was right: he was dangerous. Very dangerous. Leia needed to take a tentative approach. 

Her heart was in her mouth as she concentrated her mind, focussing it on the image of her son. 

“Ben,” she whispered. 

The low murmur of the Force surrounded her. Leia waited. And waited. Patience was key. She just needed to hold on a little longer. That’s when she saw him, sitting on the end of his bed, head in his hands. Like a ghost, he wavered in the low light of his room. Her eyes lit up, though her heart maintained an irregular, fast rhythm. He could hear it. 

He slowly turned around to face her. 

“Leia,” his voice sounded different, sombre. However, there was a harshness to it. She tried not to gasp at the beastly tone he took. 

“Ben? What happened to you?” she reached for him but he backed away, “Why are you-”

“Get out of my head!” he rose from his seat. He loomed over her, the shadow he cast was just like Vader’s. However, his slightly shaking form created a feeling of uneasiness that she never felt in Vader’s presence. This ominous, wintry feeling was something that struck her as more terrifying than anything Vader had ever held over her. Perhaps, it was because this was her son? Or maybe, this boy was indeed something far worse than Darth Vader? 

“Ben, please, talk to me…” Leia wasn’t going to give up so easily. 

“I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

Her heart plummeted in her chest. She could help him. She knew she had the resources. 

“Ben, come home. I can help you. Your father and I are here for you.”

He looked at her, his eyes were almost hypnotizing. They were a stark contrast to his pale face, his reddish brown irises glowed warmly. Tears began to well up. Then his face turned cruel.

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Stop this, come home!” Leia rose from her seat and walked towards him. 

He shook his head. 

She took another step.

He backed away. His heart was beginning to throb in his chest. His hands were shaking too. His scar was stinging in his shoulder now. 

“Ben!” she moved to touch him, then-

_SNICK!_

Leia fell to the floor with a bloodied ear. By the time she had gotten up, Kylo Ren had severed the connection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Kylo Ren awoke to the taste of blood in his mouth and flesh caught in his teeth. He wanted to throw up but his stomach burned. He felt cold, really cold. His body shivered as a draft swept in. 
> 
> Where the fuck am I?


	19. Droids Are Mean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren wakes up.

Kylo Ren awoke to the taste of blood in his mouth and flesh caught in his teeth. He wanted to throw up but his stomach burned. He felt cold, really cold. His body shivered as a draft swept in.

_Where the fuck am I?_

He realised that he was lying in a pool of blood. A red halo framed his head that rested on the cold, metal floor. He looked to his right and found an angry scar running across his shoulder. The skin was badly mutilated, with strange undulations and a dark discolouration. Ren sighed. He rose from his bed of rags and red, to find he was naked. Completely naked.

_Where the fuck have all my clothes gone?_

The heat rose to his cheeks as his eyes darted around for something to save whatever dignity he had left.

He sighed. The room was empty and dark. He could see the shadows of figures slumped against walls. The stench of old blood and meat made every breath torturous. He covered his nose as he crept through the room, pulling on scraps of the most intact material he could find. It wasn’t enough to completely save his dignity, but it was the best he could do. He threw them on, not really caring about neatness or… well, anything. No one seemed conscious which was convenient regarding his current state. His head throbbed and his stomach growled.

_Why the fuck am I so hungry?_

He couldn’t see much in the low light. The shadows watched as he fumbled around for a switch.

The light flickered on and Kylo Ren found himself surrounded by bodies. Bodies that had endured unimaginable amounts of damage. Lacerations and gaping wounds adorned the bloody manakins. Some had lost their heads, others had a limb or two missing but almost all had no heart. Dark holes at the centre of their chests revealed an empty space, an empty red void. It didn’t take much for him to realise that whatever stringy piece of sinew that was caught between his canines belonged to one of these bodies.

_And thus, he threw up._

However, what left his lips was not usual. Dust clouds of ash spewed out. He spluttered as the embers scratched against the back of his throat. He was disgusted by the bodies, by the stench of ship fuel and by himself. The ash settled in front of his shaking form, it had a slight red hue.

_I must have had a really, really, really, bad hangover._

Except this wasn’t a hangover. This was an absolute massacre, and one that he was wholly responsible for.

How the fuck did this happen?

Desperate for answers, Kylo wearily raised a bloodstained hand and tried to search his own mind with the Force. Everything rushed towards him at once.

_A fire. A forsaken master. A forgotten boy. The clash of two lightsabers in the dead of night. The cries of two parents who were never truly there._  
_Fire. Master. Boy. Sabers. Parents._  
_**FIRE. MASTER. BOY. SABERS. PARENTS.** _

Ren screamed at the memories that swept through his mind like a tsunami. " _FIRE. MASTER. BOY_ ", the Force yelled, " _FIRE. MASTER, BOY_." He grimaced, wanting this to end.

 _I’ve suffered enough_ , the Commander thought, clutching the corners of his head. _Please, just… show me._

The Force went silent. Show me, Ren repeated, but all he could see was a vast emptiness. " _SHOW ME_ ," he roared, slamming an ungloved fist onto the floor.

His hand reddened and began to sting. It seemed as though the Force itself wasn’t willing to show him what had happened while he was unconscious. Kylo whimpered, beginning to feel sick and dizzy from the sight of dead bodies all around him.

_Can I just have a break? Please?_

As if on cue, Phasma strode in towards the apex of the Finalizer’s bridge with her blaster in her hand and her quarterstaff by her side. Her heavy steps came to a halt upon laying eyes on the scene around her. She had seen a lot of things, but none more disturbing than… this.

Kylo didn’t know whether the sight of his barely-covered body played a part in it, but it probably did. However, it was undisputed that the unholy sight of limbless, headless and disemboweled bodies strewn across the floor and slumped against the walls terrified her. The revelation of the full extent of Ren’s rampage was more than enough to reduce Phasma to a silent, frightened mess.

Something primal in her, more than a simple fear, sealed her lips and sent her legs taking her outside of the room.

Kylo watched as she turned on her heel and left.

_Great._

He could hear her footsteps slowly get faster and faster. A weary sigh left his lips. He didn’t need the Force to tell him, he knew. He had done this. He had butchered dozens. They lay around him, a punishing visual. A loud ringing sounded. Ren covered his ears and fell to the ground. A blue light brought a glitching image of Snoke. Flickering like a spirit.

“Scoundrel! What have you done to my…” he looked around. He could have sworn Ren was here.

VADER chimed in. “Ren was here,” the droid entity began. “As a matter of fact, he is still here. His heat signature suggests that he’s alive and well. Would you like a full report on what has happened so far?”

“Spare me the details, you half-baked clone. For the Sith’s sake, I just saw him right here.”

“I think we saw everything here. Perhaps I can... convince your protegé to show himself. Kylo Ren,” VADER began, “ _Howl_ are you?”

Snoke leaned back on his holographic throne and lifted yet another americano to his lips. “I hope you’re not feeling too… _ruff_.”

A loud groan came from the corner of the room.

“Commander Ren, what happened to your voice?” VADER asked. “It sure sounds a little… _husky_.”

Another groan and a flicker came from the left.

Snoke chuckled. “I think we’re driving him… _barking mad_!”

“I say… no one wants a werewolf _fur_ a Commander!”

Ren revealed himself. VADER played something that sounded like a soul-crushingly shitty recorder version of his own theme tune.

“Explain yourself, or I crank this up to dog whistle frequency.”

The mighty Jedi-Killer fell to his knees.

“I don’t remember anything! Snoke, I-”

“How can you not remember a massacre as great as this!” Snoke snarled. “Entrails strewn across floors, blood coating the walls, piles of disfigured bodies: you slaughtered almost an entire ship! Not to mention… you killed Steve!”

Kylo shuddered at the sound of the Supreme Leader’s voice. “Please, I don’t know what happened. I don’t know who Steve is, I don’t know who you’re going on about. Can someone just tell me-”

“You were unbalanced, Ren. You were weak. First bitten by a rabid piece of rebel scum, next overtaken by some kind of feral beast. What now? Is your lycanthropy going to destroy the First Order? Everything we stood for, snuffed out because you couldn’t defend yourself when the time came? Admit it, Ren. YOU FAILED!”

“Ouch.” VADER muttered. Kylo Ren rolled his eyes at the nearest intact piece of tech he could find.

He was lost for words. What could he say without incurring the wrath of the Supreme Leader? Not much. The Commander sighed. “I’m sorry, Supreme Leader. I won’t do it again…”

“What did you just say? You won’t do it again? You’re a fool to believe that.” The holo-link closed in on Snoke’s face. “You’ve singlehandedly squandered every single advantage that the First Order had in the search for the droid. It’s too late now. Unverified reports tell me that the BB unit has fallen into the hands of the Resistance-”

Kylo whimpered. “You can’t… Supreme Leader, this cannot be true.”

“It most likely is, since you fucking fucked it up. There’s more. Over the past few days, I have begun to sense a disturbance in the Force.”

“As have I,” Ren muttered.

“A scavenger girl from Jakku seems to be the next Luke Skywalker. She’s allied with both your father and your mother. The Force has drawn her to a lightsaber on Takodana. Your grandfather’s lightsaber, to be exact. When she wields it against us, she will be more powerful than any Jedi who has ever lived.” Snoke narrowed his eyes. “If she is the one to find Luke Skywalker, she will be one to bring us all down. I thought you were better than this. I thought you could lead the First Order to victory. I thought you could be the next Vader. Alas, you’re no Vader. You’re just a child in a mask.”

The Supreme Leader sighed and turned back towards his throne.

“That hurt my feelings and it wasn’t even directed to me. I can’t imagine the rage and embarrassment you are feeling, Ren.” VADER once again, interrupted the conversation.

Ren snarled, only to stop himself halfway through.

“You must be completely and utterly distraught. First, you realise you’re slowly turning into a monster, then you kill almost your entire crew, then you wake up completely unaware of the massacre, then your master tells you how much of a failure you are. Wow, your pride is shattered. You must feel like a right bell-end, Kylo Ren. It’s a good thing I can’t see it.”

Snoke raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve disabled Ren’s video on this hololink. Just to spare your dignity-”

“Turn it on. NOW.”

“Okay, if you insist. You’re not missing much, apart from his eight-pack. He’s absolutely shredded, sir.”

VADER turned on the hololink, only for the Supreme Leader's already-mangled face to mangle itself even more at what he saw.

“OH GOD! TURN IT OFF!” he yelled.

Kylo felt another volume of bile rise in his throat. He doubled over and spluttered more ash around him. Hot tears of searing shame and agony stung his eyes as puffs of the dusty remains left his already bloodied mouth. Snoke grimaced as he heard the wretches from the other side. His ribcage protested vehemently as he was brought to his knees. His body had already been through enough.

“I think you’re going to need that med-droid, Ren. Return to your quarters and do as the droid instructs… and please, don’t destroy it.”

The wispy hologram fizzled and cracked before disappearing entirely. Kylo was once again alone. He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist.

_How am I going to get to my quarters… looking like this?_

He sighed. Then he noticed something. His hands were fading! _What?_ He could see them slowly disappear into the bleak black floor. Then he realised the rest of him was gone. He saw no reflection in the bloody pools around him, was he invisible? His head felt slightly fuzzy, but no nausea swirled in his mind or clouded his vision. In fact, his vision was clearer than ever.

At this point, this new camouflage ability was the least weirdest thing to happen to him. He went with it and managed to make it to his quarters safely.

The droid was waiting for him.

Ren pulled out a cape from his wardrobe and wrapped it around himself as his body slowly faded back into view.

“Commander Ren! How absolutely indecent of you to be dressed like that. I would rather _not_ see everything, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s just… can you not talk about that right now?”

“You’re going to freeze, sir. You ought to wear warmer clothing!”

It strode to his wardrobe and stared at the sets of robes, all of which looked enticingly comfortable. Ren could smell the slightly sweet scent of whatever fabric softener the crew were using these days. His legs felt like they were going to buckle, he took a seat on his bed. The droid’s delicate fingers ran along the various clothes. It murmured to itself as it procured a particularly warm looking set of robes. Ren watched as it dumped them onto his lap.

“If you would get changed into these, sir, I would be grateful. It would also help increase your temperature,” it felt his forehead, “You’re deathly cold, sir! What have you been doing?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Well, why don’t you know?”

“I don’t know why I don’t know, you droid whose name I don’t know, so don’t ask me if I know why I don’t know why I don’t know, because I don’t.”

“Noted. Severe amount of babbling seems to be a key symptom.”

“Are you logging this?”

“I was programmed to do so, Commander Ren. The Supreme Leader has requested a full investigation of your condition. Now please get changed. Please.”

Ren sighed, picked up his clothes, went to the bathroom, and got changed. Unfortunately for him and his already wavering sanity, VADER chimed in just as he had finished.

“Hello there!” it exclaimed. Ren noted that the droid entity’s voice sounded suspiciously like Obi-Wan Kenobi. “If it isn’t Ben Solo-”

“DON’T!” Ren yelled. _Fuck, my voice is too loud._ He winced at the sound and covered his ears.

The medical droid beside him didn’t seem too pleased. “The volume of your whiny, wailing voice is astronomical. I can’t even hear myself think! Use your indoor voice, Kylo Ren.”

_Great, now I have two droids on my back!_

It felt his forehead once again.

“Your temperature is increasing. Are you hungry, sir?”

He was starving. No, famished.

The medical droid nudged him. “Do you feel like you could eat a whole horse?”

“No.”

“Did you mean ‘yes’?” it elbowed him, playfully.

Ren looked at the droid quizzically. _Did it have some dodgy socialising system built in or something?_

It suddenly took his hand. He felt a small prick in his index finger, like the quick jab of a needle. He winced as he felt blood drip from his fingertip. The smell of iron…

“I’ve just taken a quick blood sample and… you’re slightly anaemic and-”

Ren lurched at the droid. He pinned it to the ground and began to snap at its throat. The poor robot screamed and shielded its face with its spindly arms.

“SIR!”

The young Solo wouldn’t relent. Drool dripped from his lips and onto the metal forearm of the droid. It shrieked as it noticed his fangs, it could see the small ridges - like those on a venomous snake.

“SIR, I’M VERY SORRY, BUT I’M GOING TO HAVE TO ADMINISTER A CONTROLLED SHOCK!” it cried, trying to see if he would hear through the cacophony of his own snarls.

Electricity ran through his body. He fell back as he let out a small yelp. The droid hastily got up and dusted itself off. Kylo rubbed the back of his head, consciousness slowly coming back to him.

“Commander Ren, you’re being helped. Please do not resist.”

The droid pinned him to the ground, its cold hand pushed down on the back of his head. Of course they would use a remodelled KX-series security droid to deal with him! He writhed in its hold.

“Are you with us again, sir?”

He wheezed as the droid dug its knee into his back. It leant down, so that its blank, steely face was next to his. The lifeless white eyes of the droid looked at him.

“As you can see, sir, I am a KX-series droid. Although I have been repurposed as a med droid, I still possess my enforcing equipment. Commander Ren, I must warn you that I have been instructed to take drastic measures should things go wrong. I suggest you cooperate.”

Kylo grunted.

“I’d like to propose a theory on your sudden mood swing, sir-”

“Please, don’t call it a mood swing… “ at this point, Kylo Ren didn’t know whether he was slowly being consumed by his inner turmoil, rage, hunger or embarrassment. He couldn't even bring himself to make eye contact with it.

“Blood.”

“What?”

“Sir, from referring to other predatory creatures, I think blood may set off a frenzy in you.”

“Anything else?”

“Well, I’d recommend that you’d avoid the substance.”

“‘Avoid the substance’? Yeah right, considering that Snoke always asks me to kill people for him.” Ren sighed. “What am I going to do, tell him to dust off his lightsaber, get off his arse, and do the work for me?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“No.”

“Droid, could you get off of me?”

“Only if you promise to cooperate. And apologise to the First Order High Command for trying, and succeeding, to kill them.”

“Oh for kriff’s sake.”

“Commander Ren, I will not tolerate such inflammatory language!”

“Yeah, sure… whatever. But you’re writing the apology letters for me.”

“Fine. And thank you, sir.”

It slowly began to remove itself. Kylo got up and rubbed his sore shoulder. The droid patted him on the head.

“Good Commander.”

He rolled his eyes.

“By the way, are you hungry, sir?”

“Yes.”

The droid’s eyes lit up.

“I’ve ordered a meal to be brought to your door. I hope you enjoy it, sir! Unfortunately, I’ll have to leave you, I’ve been requested at the sick bay. And I have to write your letters for you. Gosh, you’re like a three-year-old child.”

“I’m twenty-nine years old.”

“Doesn’t matter, you still act like a toddler. Anyways, goodbye!” it waved.

Ren sighed. “Bye, K-”

“Please, call me Patricia.”

And with that, it left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> That's it. That's the letter. Can I go now?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
>  _Not_ Kylo Ren.


	20. Apologies Aplenty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patricia's apology letters.

* * *

Dear Sir/Madam/Commander/Whoever ~~The Fuck~~ In The First Order You Are,

I am Kylo Ren. Well, I'm not. I'm a medical droid who doesn’t even get paid to do this kriffing job for him. Anyways, I - no, he - am… is… are… writing an apology letter, for him, for the thing that happened. You know the thing. That briefing room incident? The one where he… oh, nevermind.

Commander Ren asked me not to describe it in much detail, because a substantial number of generals have fainted already, and he doesn’t want another one to. To be honest, that was more my addition than his. He only told me to write these and send it to you. 

Anyways, Ren… no, I… he just wanted to say that no-one is going to get eaten/vapourised/exterminated/upgraded/possessed/mortally wounded/turned to jelly the next time an incident like this happens, which, in all likelihood, will be soon with where he’s going. Even I, with the collective skills of the First Order’s top medical professionals, don’t know what he is anymore.

He also wants me to say that he promises he won’t accidentally murder someone again. ‘Accidentally?’ And he says that he’s very, very, very sorry because it was an accident and he didn’t mean to be deliberate about what happened. 

That’s it. That’s the letter. Can I go now?

Thanks,

 _Not_ Kylo Ren.

* * *

Dear General Hugs, Lieutenant Commander Dolphin Mitaka, and Captain Phase-ma,

I am not Kylo Ren.

Well, I am, but only for the duration of this letter. The real Kylo Ren wants to say sorry to all three of you; sorry to Hux for an unscheduled transformation into a bestial entity, which resulted in you getting stunned by several thousand blasters; sorry to Mitaka for making you stab me… no, him, twice with his own lightsaber, and sorry to Phasma, for making you have to put up with all of this.

General Hux, Kylo Ren just wanted to also say that he further apologises for sniffing your cologne in the corridor. He also wants to say that he did think you smelt quite nice. I don’t exactly know what cologne you use - Ren never told me - but it’s great on you. Oh wait. Droids can’t smell. Kriff.

Well, I’m also here to inform you that the real Kylo Ren also told me not to write this letter, but that doesn’t exactly matter. Why don’t you go and get a coffee with him and get him to apologise to you in person?

(Hux, try the supply closet. You know, in case you need somewhere to hide.)

Sincerely,

That Droid Kylo Ren Really Hates.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “Phasma, may I remind you that we are here to have a civilised discussion?”
> 
> "In a supply room?"


	21. Steve's Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux decides to hold a meeting in a supply closet.

"Do we really have to convene here?!"

Phasma sighed as she entered the supply room. The place was cramped as it was already, but now that Hux had shoved a table into the only walking space they had and brought extra-large lattes for the three of them, the stormtrooper captain questioned if she had enough room to breathe. 

Mitaka didn't seem to be all too happy either. He sat - or rather, _stood_ \- opposite Hux, nervously nodding as the ginger general raved on about the carnage that had happened only hours ago.

“Phasma, may I remind you that we are here to have a civilised discussion?”

"In a supply room?"

“Well, where else can we go? Ren will seek us out. Besides, Patricia recommended it to us in the apology letter. We need to be careful!”

“General Hux, there’s always the spare meeting room-” 

“Mitaka, we’ve gone through this: nowhere is safe, do you want that... “ Hux hesitated. “That… thing. It was like a Black Shuck, like those devil dogs of legend and myth. It wasn’t even normal, or natural, it was… unnatural, and it was wrong, just wrong. Gosh, I can’t even describe it. Do you want _it_ to come after you?!”

“So that’s what you’re calling him now?” Phasma laughed a little. 

“Makes him sound like a monster from a child’s nightmare,” Mitaka muttered. 

“He is a monster!”

“Well, sir, I-”

Hux scowled at Mitaka, who closed his mouth and retreated into his collar once more.

Phasma shook her head in disdain. “Can we just get this over with?" She paused suddenly. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. "Hux... Mitaka... Can you hear that?"

Someone was howling in the background; a wailing lament that ended in a guttural bloodthirsty growl. The captain’s blood ran cold. 

“EVERYONE GET BEHIND MITAKA!” the general screeched. Hux grabbed Mitaka by the scruff of his neck and pulled him into the space - whatever little space there was - nearest the door.

The poor commander screamed. “WHY ME?” He scrunched up his face in pure terror. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Sorry,” a robotic voice announced. _VADER_. “I'm just testing a drill. Whatever's left of you lot doesn't need to panic."

Mitaka collapsed on the floor and fainted. Hux sighed and ran a hand through his red locks. Phasma sheathed her blaster. 

“Well, it’s glad to see that you’re all alert and responsive to the sound.”

“Because we’re all severely traumatised,” Hux spoke through gritted teeth.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to-”

“I SAW HIS EYES FALL OUT, VADER! I SAW HIS EYES FALL OUT! AND HIS JAW REPEATEDLY DISLOCATE AND RELOCATE LIKE AN INDECISIVE MARIONETTE! AND HIS BODY SHIFT AND-”

“General Hux, I must say-”

“HE TURNED OFF THE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY GENERATORS! WHO TURNS OFF THE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY GENERATORS? NO ONE TURNS OFF THE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY GENERATORS!”

“Weren’t you the one who turned off the artificial gravity generators?” VADER asked.

Hux simply scowled at the steel door in front of him.

“The sounds were the worst parts,” Phasma muttered to herself, “the screams slowly fading into roars, bones breaking and reforming… man becoming beast.”

She looked off into the distance, as if addressing someone. Hux looked over her shoulder to see what she was staring at. 

“The sounds still play in my head… “ Phasma furrowed a brow at her own words. It seemed as though she had suddenly turned into a war poet overnight. 

VADER for once, seemed concerned. “Do you guys need counselling?” 

“I need bleach… I need mind bleach,” Hux stammered.

In the corners of her eyes, Phasma saw Mitaka slowly regain consciousness.

“The aftermath too, the bodies… the headless, heartless bodies of what were once people. People who had lives. And him, laying under a red halo - like an angel of death,” Phasma continued her soliloquy, she held her hands out in front of her- pondering what was truly human nature, “A cursed saint, a force of wrath and blood, a-”

“Hux?” Mitaka whimpered. “General Hux?”

“What?”

“I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

Hux sighed and knelt down. “Close your eyes, Mitaka. It’ll help with the nausea.” He unclipped the commander’s belt. “It’s okay, just breathe. You’ll be fine.”

Phasma wondered if she should write down anything she had just said; she never knew she had such a way with words. Perhaps this trauma had awoken something in her? 

“And here we stand, united in our suffering, while the beast wanders free.”

“That’s very nice, Phasma, but could you help me with Mitaka?”

Phasma knelt down and threw one of Mitaka’s arms around her shoulder. Hux did the same. The trio, from a metre or two away, didn’t look very sober. 

The howling still rang in her ears. They had seen enough of the Dark Side. 

Hux shook his head. “Whoever said that the Dark Side may lead to abilities others deem unnatural really underestimated the true extent, that wasn’t unnatural… that was just fucking wrong.” The general wheezed a little as he helped to raise the poor man off the floor.

“His eyes fell out.”

“His eyes did indeed fall out.”

“Although, you have to admit,” Mitaka began groggily, “As someone who hadn’t seen his face up until a few days ago… he was pretty good looking.”

“What?” Hux looked at him strangely.

“There is an elegance about him, I must admit it.” Phasma rambled.

Hux sighed. He supposed, considering what they had all been through together, he could confide in them.

"Is it bad to say that Kylo Ren... looks better after the bite?"

"No. It's true."

"Strange but true, sir."

Phasma had never been one to invest in the looks of others but now that she thought of it; every now and then, when she’d catch a glimpse of him, he looked almost ethereal. There was this delicateness, yet strength in his face. A lupine charm, if you will. 

She’d never thought that she’d be admitting that Kylo Ren looked regal. He was meant to be the scruffy son of a smuggler but no, he looked like a king. Nay, an emperor. He towered over most people, had these entrancing eyes and a voice that commanded. Damn, Kylo Ren was a fucking force to be reckoned with. Not to mention, his foul temper - well, he had that before this but still, it was another thing on the list. 

A knock sounded on the door. 

Everyone went silent. 

“It’s Ren on the other side,” Mitaka whispered. 

“How do you know?” 

“I may have installed a tracker using a hair he left in the corridor a couple of days ago. I got a hold of another datapad, and I’ve been tracking him ever since,” Mitaka said, cracking a small smug grin.

“Well, with what’s been going on, I’m grateful you’ve done that. Now give me the datapad or you’re fired!” Hux spat in a low voice. 

Another knock sounded. Mitaka was once again shoved to the front before the door. Phasma peered over his shoulder and reached for the keypad. 

“God save us,” Hux whispered. 

The doors parted to reveal Kylo Ren staring at them with a confused look on his face. 

“General, Captain, Commander,” he addressed them as they gawked at him. 

“Commander Ren, sir?” Mitaka stuttered. 

“What the kriff are you doing here? This place stinks!”

The three of them glanced at each other. “Actually, it was Hux’s idea…”

“No it wasn’t! It was-” the ginger screeched.

“I don’t need to read your mind to know that it was, Hux. You’re smarter than this. I can’t even believe you’re a general in the first place.”

Phasma, Hux, and Mitaka cowered in fear.

“Relax, I’m not going to eat you… yet.”

“If you’re going to eat someone, take Mitaka!” Hux yelled.

“What?” 

It was at that moment that Phasma witnessed Mitaka give the bitchiest sneer she had ever seen. 

“I’ll consider it.” Kylo gave a disturbing wolfish grin. He liked the fear he had struck into the high commander. “General Hux, tell me… why the fuck did you bring a table into this shitstorm of a supply closet?”

“Ren-”

“It doesn’t even fit! It doesn’t even fucking fit! It’s just standing there on its side! On its side, General Hux! And the lattes? Phasma doesn’t even drink coffee!” Kylo sighed. “Why can’t you use the Finalizer’s bridge like you always did?”

“The blaster bolts fired in the bridge as I lay in my bed, but they were nothing to the blaster bolts firing in my head.”

Everyone looked at Phasma as she stared off into the distance once more. 

“What’s happened to Captain Phasma?” 

“You happened to Captain Phasma.”

Phasma shuddered as the commander surveyed the room, his saturated eyes scanning everyone’s faces. The two Knights behind him did little to reduce their growing fear.

The Supreme Leader’s sudden arrival in the form of a hologram made everything worse.

“I would say, ‘Hello there’, but that’s not my line,” Snoke said, clearly done with Kylo Ren’s bullshit.

The man himself turned to face the hologram. “Supreme Leader,” he replied, shaking slightly. _Was he… nervous?_ “Have you come to convene the First Order High Command? I’m afraid they’re a little… traumatised, at the moment. At least what’s left of them.”

Phasma could see the humanoid grimace in the projected light. “No. In fact, I’m here to talk about something - or rather, someone - else. You killed twenty-six individuals, Ren. Including Steve. You killed Steve. You killed him!”

“I don’t know anyone called Steve, Supreme Leader.”

“Oh yes you do,” Hux said. “But Steve’s gone now. He’s been ripped in half. He’s not coming back… because of you.”

“I’m sorry, but Steve who?”

Phasma cut in. “Steve McGeeve, sir. From radar tech.”

“Who are you talking about? I don’t know who Steve was.”

“How can you not know who Steve was?” asked Mitaka, dazed, confused, and slightly annoyed.

Kylo Ren shrugged. “I told you, I don’t remember a Steve-”

“He was the guy you kept on calling ‘Matt’!” Snoke exclaimed. “That one you mistook for the intern...”

The knight sighed, shook his head in disbelief, and solemnly turned to the three in the supply closet. “I’m sorry. Sorry for killing Steve. Have you read the apology letters I sent?”

“Yes,” replied Mitaka. “And we know you didn’t send them.”

“How did you know I didn’t?”

“Because it says, ‘Not Kylo Ren’, and ‘The Droid Kylo Ren Really Hates’,” Phasma said, pulling the letters out from her medkit and presenting it to Ren. “It was Patricia, wasn't it? Next time you accidentally turn into a werewolf, write the apologies yourself.”

Kylo Ren took the letter from the captain's hand and read it, frowning at the way he was beaten at his own game. "So it _was_ her who told you to convene here. Gosh..." Ren took a deep breath, then decided to press on. "Well, I'm glad you're all cooped up in here anyway. I need to speak with you three about the map to Skywalker."

Mitaka gulped. The First Order had almost entirely forgotten about that now.

“The past few days have completely derailed our efforts to find the droid. Efforts that you are going to help me with.”

As much as the trio wanted to question his decision and the lack of acknowledgement that it was _Kylo Ren_ who was to blame for the derailment, they couldn’t. Seeing their colleagues ripped apart and eaten alive was more than enough to scare the First Order High Command into submission. 

Hux moved to speak. “ _Help you_? With your efforts? Skywalker is none of our concern. The First Order does not need to resort to some kind of sorcery to establish control. You assume that-”

“You know what, Hux?” Kylo Ren glared daggers at everyone else in the room. “I’m glad you’ve decided to speak out, because I was feeling peckish anyway.”

The two Knights behind him took a step back as Ren's face contorted into a menacing grin; a warning that anyone he disapproved of wouldn't be subject to his wit, but rather be torn apart by his teeth.

“Operation _Kreia_ will see to it that the droid is found. Star Destroyers will be sent to any planet with even the slightest connections to the vile Resistance, while you, General Hux, will take both of your petty subordinates on a command shuttle to Starkiller Base. Once there, you will fire the weapon at the New Republic - immediately. Anyone on the Finalizer who has command over a ship will immediately return to their positions of command and scour those suspect planets. I will be accompanying General Pryde on this ship to the planet of Takodana on the orders of the Supreme Leader. He’s sensed a disturbance in the Force - a disturbance belonging to a girl from Jakku. We cannot let her be the next Luke Skywalker, lest we face the downfall of the First Order itself.” Ren glared at Hux, whose already pallid face grew even paler at his words. “Do you want to die like Tarkin?”

The general’s voice had begun to shake. “No, Commander.” 

“Are my orders understood?”

“Y-yes, Commander.” Hux bowed his head as Ren looked down at him. 

“Good. Well, get started. And don’t disappoint: I want my orders followed exactly as how they are given.”

The trio watched as Ren left. His two Knights seemed to look back at them, one could see the fear behind their masks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Rey shielded herself from the debris, and then from the bright sunlight on Takodana. Mud surrounded her as well as the refractions of oncoming blaster bolts. The girl ducked and scrambled. A soldier ran towards her and reached for her hand. Just as she was about to grab his wrist, a red searing blade erupted from his chest. 
> 
> Kylo Ren.


	22. I Didn't Think This Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey picks up the Skywalker lightsaber.

Rey looked around before gently opening the chest. There it was. The lightsaber of Luke Skywalker, and Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber before him. The legend itself. Her hand hovered over it tentatively; whispers seemed to come from it, calling out, calling to _her_. BB-8 gave a beep of encouragement, and she returned it a smile.

 _I can do this_ , she thought. _I have this. I can do this._ A lightsaber that had belonged to two generations of Skywalkers wouldn’t call out to anyone, she had reasoned. _The Force needs me. But for what?_

Instinctively, Rey plucked it from its bed of rags and wood. The sound of it igniting ripped through the air; startled by the sudden noise, she flinched and fell back. The room’s dim light had turned pitch black… or so she thought. A quick glance around a corner told her that she was in some kind of artificially illuminated corridor, belonging to some kind of spacecraft. Frightened, she turned and ran towards what she thought was the exit, but the pathway caught up with her in no time, collapsing and consuming her whole.

Rey managed to catch herself on sandy ground. The texture of it was familiar, almost _too familiar_ \- almost as if she had lived here once. A thousand voices seemed to talk to her at once; first, the mutterings of people she thought she knew, but didn’t; next, a piercing scream that echoed through the dusty air, followed by another; and then, the sound of a lost boy screaming no in despair and desperation alike. On impulse, her hazel eyes darted up, only to meet the familiar face of R2-D2. _What’s he doing here?_ she wanted to ask, but someone was already talking in her place, whispering words of evil in a serpentine language. The hooded being grabbed onto it with clawed, inhuman hands. Smoke surrounded the girl, and she had never felt more alone.

She pushed herself off of the ground and looked behind her; the night sky was torn asunder to reveal a raging storm, and a soldier charged towards her. Rain poured down onto Rey and her surroundings as the trooper advanced, until he was stabbed through the heart by the searing red of a lightsaber with a bleeding edge, doubtless belonging to a force of evil within the galaxy. The girl heard a pained, agonising yell as the man’s dead body dropped to the ground, revealing a group of seven menacing shadows in the darkness. One of them, their leader, stood at the forefront, holding the glowing blade in his hands; Rey didn’t fail to recognise him as Kylo Ren, and the group as his knights. Ren advanced, and she gulped as his masked face grew closer, and closer, and closer…

_No!_

The girl turned towards the voice, terrified. Unlike the others, she vaguely recognised its hopeless howl of despair. It came from someone, somewhere…

It came from _her_.

Rey’s younger self appeared before her as clear as the bright desert daylight of Jakku. _Come back_ , she cried, and everything came back to her at once. She could almost remember why; she could almost see them, two faint figures paralysed by fear, running from a force of evil she had barely understood, existing only in the corners of her memory. She had made herself forget, to the point where they barely existed. _Was it truly them?_ It had been long, _too long_ , and she couldn’t even tell whether they were real anymore.

 _Quiet, girl_ , Unkar Plutt boomed out. The child glanced at him, then back in front of her. _No_ , she wept again. Rey craned her neck behind her to see a ship speeding off into the bright blue sky, never to be seen again; soon enough, the sky itself disappeared, replaced by an abyss of darkness. She stumbled around the forest-like scene, until she saw the saber, bleeding red, and the masked man - _Kylo Ren_ \- holding it, alone. This time, a pair of silver, slit-like eyes shone through the valley of darkness on his face, threatening to scar her, threatening to kill her… 

And then _he_ changed.

Rey couldn’t describe what she was seeing. Ren’s mask cracked into a thousand pieces, his clothes ripped apart, and his skin turned into some kind of animal’s fur. His previously-human figure transformed into that of a wolf-like beast; as much as she wanted to turn back, as much as she wanted to run away, and as much as she wanted to move, she couldn’t. The monster towered over her, opening its cavernous mouth, baring its sharp fangs. The girl shut her eyes, immobilised by fear itself. _No_ , _no_ , _no_ …

Rey fell backwards into a black void.

She opened her eyes after a few moments, bleary and confused. _Where am I?_ she thought, until she saw Maz Kanata gently approaching her. She was back on Takodana.

“Easy. It’s just me,” she said. The girl didn’t feel comforted in the slightest.

“I-I want to get back to Jakku.”

“Why? You’re all the way out here. You’ve come this far. Dear, you shouldn’t be afraid, you are a healer and I can see you’re not one to give up.” 

Maz held out her hand; Rey took it.

“Whoever left you on Jakku, they’re not coming back,” she said. Kanata could see Rey was holding back her tears, knowing what she had just said to be true. “Who you’re searching for lies ahead.”

Rey sighed. “I don’t… I just don’t think that I belong-”

“That lightsaber called to you! Rey, you are clearly meant to be here and you are clearly here to help! Go on. Take that lightsaber; it’s for you.”

Rey cracked a shaky smile as she gripped the lightsaber tightly. BB-8 beeped and nudged her. She wiped away those dreary tears and got back onto her feet. _I can do this_ , she reminded herself. _I have this. I can do this._

“You’re a healer. Never forget that.” Maz placed her other hand on Rey’s shoulder. 

She sighed, both relieved and slightly terrified. What Rey saw in the Force visions had terrified her; if the monsters from the children’s tales that Lor San Tekka had told her had but a single body, it would be none other than the masked, cloaked figure of Kylo Ren, slowly morphing into that of a beast.

The Force had shown her Ren for a reason, however; an undoubtedly sure sign that she would have to have to face him. Some would call it destiny, others a change in the air, but Rey had never truly believed in such things… until now.

Right now, the change in the air was the low whir and the blue lights breaking through the clouds as an _Upsilon_ -class command shuttle began its descent. She winced as she heard the uproar above. This was going to be bloody. The thumping of stormtrooper boots above and the tumultuous clamor of voices and blaster bolts shook the ceiling. She thanked Maz before heading back up the stairs, BB-8 trailed behind her. It would’ve followed her onto the battlefield if Finn hadn't scooped it up and placed it somewhere safe. 

Rey emerged to find a scene of absolute disaster. The spires of buildings collapsed and crumbled while dogfights between X-Wings and TIE Fighters sent the sky into a frenzy of red and green. She clutched the lightsaber tightly, only to realise it wouldn’t be the safest with her; she didn't really have any pockets, and if she was strong in the Force, just as Maz had said, they’d look to her for the saber and perhaps even the droid. 

She would be most useful as a distraction, she reasoned. Rey knew _he_ was here, and if she did, he would too. 

“Finn!”

“Rey? What is it?”

“Take this,” she tossed the lightsaber into his hands, “You and Poe are going to get BB-8 and this out of here. Stick with Han and Chewbacca. I’ll catch his attention.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think?” she said, giving a weak smile.

Finn’s eyes widened. “Are you crazy?!”

“He knows I’m here! He’s going to come after me!”

“But-”

“Just do as I say!”

“Fine, but we’re coming to get you, Rey.”

“Just in case, it’s been nice knowing you and Poe. You guys are the best.”

She pulled Finn into a tight hug. Then she ran onto the battlefield. 

There he was. Like a wild cat, Kylo Ren surveyed the carnage beneath him, waiting for the right moment, waiting like a predator waits to pick out its prey of choice. Rey tried to shake off her nerves before running into his line of vision. 

Just as she expected, he darted after her. 

She wove in and out of the twisting trees, hoping to lose him for a little longer. He was fast, faster than she had anticipated; swift like a desert hound, he pounced across fallen branches and leapt across brooks and streams. Rey felt her heart pulsate in her mouth as her pace became more and more frantic, no longer as calm and collected as she was. Her mind had been reduced to a violent concoction of fright and frenzy. The girl had thought she was ready, but she wasn’t, especially when Ren showed no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Her feet were growing tired now, not used to the uneven ground of roots and shrubbery. She hid behind a trunk, tightening her grip on the small pistol-like blaster in her trembling hands. Rey was afraid, truly afraid. Big brown eyes peered around the bark to see if he had caught up. To her dismay, she saw the black figure emerge from the mist. 

She leaned against the wood, taking a moment’s solitude. Rey took in a deep breath and peered around again. He was really close now. Her eyebrows knitted together as she saw him look up in the air. 

_Oh kriff! He’s sniffing me out!_

There was no point in hiding now, as he almost certainly knew where she was; yet in the briefest moment of pure instinct, Rey ran for her life. She broke from her hiding spot and fled, turning to the right. Kylo Ren chased after her, silent and quick and dangerously fast. She tripped and fell into a dip in the ground. It was almost easy for Ren to catch up with her and ignite his saber. 

_Shit… I didn’t think this through._

She aimed the blaster and shot at him, only for him to deflect it like she was shooting paper blanks and not plasma bolts. Rey cursed and ran, firing her weapon at him whenever she had the chance to. Kylo dodged and deflected every single one of them; the girl scowled at the sight of him. _Do you really need to show off while trying to kill me?_

Rey climbed up a set of rocks, hoping to lose him behind the boulders. She kept on firing; any form of hindrance to him would be her saving grace, but Ren didn’t seem to be bothered by the plasma bullets in the slightest. It was almost easy for him to knock the blaster out of her hand, and within seconds, the girl found herself frozen on the spot. She looked down and tried to move, but to no avail. _How…_

“The girl I’ve heard so much about,” Rey heard Kylo Ren growl. “The droid. Where is it?”

Paralysed by the Force and trembling with fear, the girl, afraid, said nothing.

“The map to Skywalker. You’ve seen it. And the lightsaber. It called to you, you’re strong in the Force.”

Rey remained silent, staring him down with contempt. Ren sighed. Even now, when she had no means of escape and no other choice other than to cooperate, she would be as stubborn and as insubordinate as ever. 

“I can teach you,” Kylo Ren said. “I can teach you the ways of the Force. You’re nothing, you know? Just another piece of dirt in the sand. But if you listen to me, you could become _more_ than that.”

The girl refused to stand down.

“You’re a feral scavenger girl from a disgusting planet in the Inner Rim, surviving off rations from that beast of a bounty hunter you loathe. But if you listened to me, Rey, you could…”

_**No.** _

Rey’s sheer will and anger seemed to break the Force hold Kylo Ren had on her. Before he could insult her further, Kylo felt the back of a hand strike across his face. He gripped her hand just as she was about to deliver another angry slap. 

“Don’t test me,” she said, irritated and deeply insulted.

She felt Ren grimace at how she had just wounded his pride. His facial expressions seemed to morph from disgust to embarrassment to slight sense of intrigue underneath his helmet, as if there was something about her that drew him in. Rey paused for a moment. The girl hadn’t spoken to the masked knight in front of her, but he somehow seemed to react as if she had just did.

“How did you do that?” he asked, confused.

“What, backhand you for insulting me?”

“Yes, well… no,” Ren said. “You _spoke_ through the Force. How did you do that?”

_**I don’t know…** _

“Wait," Rey said. "What did I just do?”

 _ **Strange**_ , Kylo said through the Force. It felt as though Rey could hear him speak without speaking; as if she could peer into Ren’s deepest thoughts without even thinking about what she was doing. _**Wait, did I...**_

“Yeah,” the girl said.

Kylo Ren pulled back a little. “What is this, is this the Force?”

_**You’re the one who’s supposed to know about that. Weren’t you trained by Luke Skywalker himself?** _

“What?!” Ren exclaimed, gripping his lightsaber tightly. “Wait, hold on. Why can I see everything from your point of view?”

“Same here,” Rey replied. “Is this new? Did you…”

 _ **You knew Lor San Tekka**_ , he said, reading her mind.

 _ **I knew Lor San Tekka and what he was**_ , Rey countered. _**And I know exactly what you are.**_

_**You know nothing about me.** _

_**You’re changing, and you don’t like it… you hate it, in fact. You seem to hate a lot of things. You hate your father, Han Solo. You hate your true name, Ben Solo. And you really, really, hate… VADER?** _

Rey furrowed her brow as much as she could through the Force hold. “I thought you liked VADER?”

“The VADER you’re thinking of is a half-baked clone. It’s nothing compared to Darth Vader.” 

Both of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments.

 _ **Guess what?**_ Ren said through the Force.

_**What?** _

_**I’ve just seen the map to Skywalker.** _

Rey’s eyes widened. Before she had time to react, she felt herself blacking out; Kylo Ren seemed to have drained her energy out of her.

“What… Ben?”

_**See you around.** _

He took her limp body into his arms; she was light, small, and _fragile_. 

A stormtrooper captain rushed up to Ren, exasperated. “Sir, Resistance fighters,” he said. “We need more troops.”

“Pull the division out. Forget the droid,” he answered. Kylo Ren almost smirked underneath his mask. “I have what I need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “Ben Solo,” the scavenger girl said. “How far have you fallen?”
> 
> Kylo Ren grimaced underneath his mask. “Rey. Just Rey. You don’t have a family. You don’t have a home.”
> 
> “So what?”


	23. Why Is Kylo Ren So Nice to Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren and Rey have a conversation.

Kylo Ren strode into the Finalizer’s main interrogation room. The First Order almost had all the intelligence they needed; although the BB-8 droid only contained part of the map needed to reveal Skywalker’s true location, Rey had seen the full, reconstructed version, although he couldn’t truly rely on her memory alone. It would take further questioning for him to be sure that her information was right.

Rey had, however, visited the Resistance base on D’Qar; information that would certainly prove vital to the First Order’s efforts. Leia’s group of bandits and outlaws had been a thorn in the galaxy’s side, and Ren felt a smug kind of satisfaction at the thought of being the one to tear it out root and stem. Starkiller Base was due to fire on the Hosnian system any moment now, and once it had obliterated the New Republic, it would then set its planet-destroying eyes on the Rebellion.

“Ben Solo,” the scavenger girl said. “How far have you fallen?”

Kylo Ren grimaced underneath his mask. “Rey. Just Rey. You don’t have a family. You don’t have a home.”

“So what?”

“Stop trying to fight this. Surrender yourself to the First Order, and I can make every single dream of yours come true.”

Rey glared at him in disgust. “No, you won’t.”

“You know where the Resistance are hiding,” she said. “And when that weapon of yours is done with the New Republic, it’ll kill the Rebellion.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Your mother. Your father. You have a family, don’t you?”

Ren shuffled anxiously. It took him a few moments to get himself together. “No. I don’t.”

“You care about them, Ben-”

“Don’t say that name.”

“You care about them. You truly do. Leia and Han want you to come home; that’s all they’ve ever wanted of you. _They’re sorry_. Ben, you have to see, you have to understand...”

Kylo Ren pulled out his lightsaber, ignited it, and slashed the walls in pure anger. His parents were the worst kind of Rebel scum he had ever encountered. They had the nerve to send me to Luke, he thought, that indoctrinated Jedi swine. The Skywalker had almost slaughtered him in the middle of the night just because he had sensed evil, and Ren had never forgiven him for it.

“NO!” he yelled. “NO, NO, NO!”

“Ben Solo, you’re acting like a beast!”

Ren froze, exhaling deeply. “Maybe I am.”

Both of them remained in silence for the next few minutes, threads of fear running through them both. It was at this point that Rey decided to have a look through Kylo Ren’s own mind, as if it were no big deal at all.

Ren could sense Rey’s growing confusion as she searched deeper and deeper. _**What…**_ he thought, slightly dazed as she sifted through his mind. _**Rey, what are you doing?**_

He gathered his strength and tried to read the scavenger girl’s memories. Something leapt out at him, something mysterious and…

_**It can’t be.** _

“Who’s that mysterious woman with you?” Rey asked.

Kylo stared at the girl in front of him with a look of horror, thankfully hidden behind his mask. “I could ask the same thing, you know. Who’s that mysterious woman with you?”

“She was a friend.”

“Was she really?”

“She was more of a friend than whatever creature turned you to the Dark side!”

“Who was that person with San Tekka?”

“I told you, a friend,” Rey sighed as sweet memories flooded her mind of the days San Tekka and the lady would visit her, “She used to read me stories.”

Kylo cocked his head to one side. 

“Stories about what?”

“Stories about people like you. Werewolves. It was Mandalorian tradition.”

“And you knew Lor San Tekka was one?”

“Yes. They were good friends, often travelled together and collected these… well, they weren’t archives, more like tales. They even encountered Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Ren seethed at the thought of the Jedi. The purest of the pure, Kenobi was the face of the Light Side. However, Ren’s disdain for the man didn’t spawn from his allegiances; his hatred for him stemmed from the fact that he was the man who had almost killed his grandfather. If it weren’t for Obi-Wan, Darth Vader wouldn’t have had to suffer with that harrowing suit and ruined lungs. 

Kylo supposed that perhaps Obi-Wan wasn’t as pure as he thought, now that he came to think of it. Kenobi wasn’t deserving of the praise and fame his name carried. There had always been a superficiality with the Jedi. And Obi-Wan being their little posterboy? _Well_ , Ren thought, _that would make him the shallowest hero of them all._

He then turned his curiosity back to the conversation. _Who was Lor San Tekka’s friend?_

“Was the woman a… “

“No. Though, now that I think of it, she seemed to be something like them. She had an affiliation with them.”

“Interesting,” he muttered. “You still want to kill me, do you?”

“That happens when you’re hunted by a creature in a mask.”

He rose from his seat and reached for the sides of his mask. With a hiss and a click, the damned monolithic visage was removed. 

Rey tried not to gasp as she saw his eyes. They were uncanny to say the least. A rich brown with strange strands of silver interwoven around his… wait? _Did he have slit pupils?!_ Kylo Ren was certainly more terrifying in the flesh.

_**Could you bring yourself to do it now?** _

His eyes shifted as the light changed, adding to Rey’s sense of terror. His delicate humanity wavered in his face just as a bead hangs on a thread. It looked like some kind of monster hidden within would break out any moment. She could also see small fangs poke out from under his upper lip. His human face seemed to be nothing but an ill-fitted mask; Rey wondered whether Ren's true nature lied with a hidden beast or with the man who stood before her.

She was beyond scared. Her heart was beating faster and faster in her chest and her stomach twisted into a thousand knots. Rey had never felt so frail. 

Kylo shuffled back. 

“You what?” She could barely get the words out as her throat began to tighten. 

He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. 

Ren thought back to the incident in the briefing room. Half of his own officers wouldn’t talk to him now because of it, and everyone seemed to gape at him in terror whenever he walked past. He was dominated by fear, and though once he had seen it as a weapon to use against others, now seeing the true extent of what he had become… it sickened him. 

The clamps unlocked on Rey’s wrists and ankles. 

On instinct, she rose from her seat and slapped him across the face. He glared at her but didn’t retaliate as he had done the last time. A low growl came from his lips, however, telling Rey that she shouldn’t make this a habit. She retreated back into her chair, waiting for the man to strike her as she saw his eyes grow dark. 

But nothing happened. 

Her brow furrowed as she saw a sadness in him. A feeling of isolation. She understood that feeling. Rey cast her mind back to Lor San Tekka and his Wanderer friend. San Tekka had always preached the power of empathy and kindness that can rise from mutual understanding. 

Lor San Tekka had always told her about a wolf’s need for companionship and how he had found that in the Wanderer. She saw a companion in Ben Solo. She knew he needed someone to help him and she could do it. She almost felt it was her duty to help him. Rey had hope. 

“I can’t let you go now. It would raise too many eyebrows, and I can’t risk the Supreme Leader’s wrath, especially after… well, you know. But there’s still a few days left before we get to Starkiller. Is there…” Ren paused. “Is there anything you want to do in the meantime?”

“I want to learn,” Rey said. “No Dark side stuff, just teach me the basics.”

Ren nodded. “We’ll practise on the bridge. I can get a couple of training sabers I use delivered there.”

The two left the room, only to meet the projected scowl of a holographic General Hux. “Commander Ren,” he said. “Who is this girl?”

“Someone important. Why?”

“N-nothing, Commander.” Hux hesitated. “I’m not going to question you after what… _happened_.”

“I see you haven’t fired the weapon yet.”

“Commander, someone important is waiting for you. He requests your presence.”

“Who?”

“Someone by the name of Emperor Palpatine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Phasma turned towards one of the stormtroopers. “Do I know you?”
> 
> “No?” Finn said, before realising who he was talking to. “I mean, yes, Captain.”
> 
> Phasma recognised the voice print, but neglected to do anything about it. There were more important things happening right now, like the fact that Hux and Kylo Ren were currently handcuffed together at the other end of the lift.


	24. No Room For One More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren gets into an elevator. Chaos ensues.

Rey, understandably, was shaken at the news of the Emperor’s presence. To be fair, even Kylo Ren didn’t have the slightest clue how the man managed to one, resurrect himself; two, decide to see _General Hux_ before him; and three, have the guts to stop Starkiller Base from firing for a couple of days. Then again, Palpatine did have an ego complex after all. _Wasn’t that how he rose to power?_

What struck him more was that Snoke didn’t seem to bat an eye at Ren training with the scavenger girl from Jakku. In fact, since Hux had announced the Emperor’s arrival on Starkiller, Snoke hadn’t appeared at all. For a fleeting moment, Kylo suspected that the two were connected, though he batted his thoughts away. _Some would call that treason_ , he had reasoned. _Perhaps they aren’t. Perhaps Snoke is rather busy being the Supreme Leader. What does the Supreme Leader do anyway?_ Ren didn’t particularly care. He wasn’t concerned with the administrative side of the First Order, but rather, its brute strength.

Kylo Ren was surprised, however, at how quickly Rey managed to pick up the Force. She had to be from some important bloodline, but she didn’t look like a Skywalker, or fight like one either. She had gripped her training saber like a knife, and fought like no other Jedi he had gone toe-to-toe with before. Her combat style was unorthodox, if not unique. The only person who Ren thought had fought like her in the slightest was that goddamned Emperor himself, but he never saw a trace of him within her; there were almost no similarities between them, save for the way they duelled. _It would be poetic, though. A Palpatine and a Skywalker, the dark and the light... no. But the Force bond…_

He neglected to follow that train of thought. The Force bond Ren and the girl only seemed to grow stronger the more they trained, and both wondered why they had been connected together. Rey was a good student, only growing better with each sparring match, but she still had a lot to learn.

As shown when she fell flat on her face, snapping Ren out of his thoughts.

“Damn it!” Rey muttered as she begrudgingly got up from the floor.

“You weren’t paying full attention, which is why I managed to trip you up.”

“My reflexes aren’t as fast as yours, you know! You’ve got an edge. I, on the other hand, didn’t even have time to think before you countered my parry!”

“Excuses won’t allow you to progress. Again.”

They gripped their carbon fibre sabres tightly, each waiting for the other to make a move. Rey had given hers a blue glow, while Ren had opted for red, like his more usual saber. After a moment, they clashed their sparring weapons again.

The girl tried to outmaneuver Kylo, but he quickly gained the upper hand. His height helped as well; although he accidentally bumped into the low-hanging ceilings of the _Finalizer’s_ corridors and turbolifts more often than not, being six inches taller allowed him to gain an advantage in combat. He would _always_ have the high ground.

It didn’t take long for him to trip her over and pin her to the floor.

“Don’t underestimate your enemy,” he said, not exhausted in the slightest.

She scowled at him as he grinned smugly. “What, do you think I did?”

Ren chuckled as Rey pushed herself off of the ground, grumbling in defeat.

“That wasn’t fair,” she said.

Kylo Ren furrowed his brow. “What was?”

“You know I’m better with the training staff.”

Ren,reluctantly, reached inside his bag for the said staff. He passed it to Rey.

“Fine,” he said. “Have it your way.”

They readied their weapons. Before long, saber and staff _clicked_ and _clacked_ ; Rey had an advantage now, and almost looked as if she were about to win the duel. That was until, in the midst of a struggle, Kylo instinctively took a swipe at her. Had Rey not been that centimetre out of reach, she would’ve left the bridge with no eyes that day. Ren took advantage of the distraction and tripped her over, pointing his training saber squarely at the girl.

“You almost took my eye out!”

“That’s what you deserve for being too confident.”

“Are you calling me cocky?”

“I’m saying it’s always healthy to have some degree of doubt within yourself. It stops you from overestimating your own abilities.”

“Doesn’t sound very healthy to me.”

The Finalizer was about to descend into Starkiller Base’s atmosphere; both of them dusted off their training robes.

“When’s the next training session?”

“Probably not for too long, given the Emperor’s arrival.”

Rey sighed. “What does he want from you?”

“Nothing good,” Kylo answered. “It’s not every day a Sith Lord decides to resurrect himself. And he came with a person of some sort. They're masked, and no-one knows anything about them. They're not his apprentice, but the Commander-General of the Sith Eternal; and, if rumours are to be believed, its namesake.”

“And you know them.”

“What?”

“They turned you, they're the figure from Ahch-To.”

Ren eyed her with confusion. “They can’t be. It wouldn’t be them, and if it were…” He paused. “Why would it be them?”

“What do you mean?”

“If Palpatine really wanted to seduce me to the Dark side, or even to the Sith Order itself, he would have spoken to me directly. But he hasn’t,” Ren reasoned. “Why them? Why Snoke? Why not him?”

Rey thought about it.

“I also take that we won’t be training for a while after our next session.”

“Hmmm? Oh, yeah right.”

They stopped in awkward silence, for a minute or two.

“Rey.”

“Yes?”

“If the alarm sounds, when I… you know. Run to the main staging and tell everyone to evacuate. And whatever you do, while we’re on Starkiller, don’t go into the woods.”

That sent a shiver down her spine. _The woods_. The vision of Ben from her nightmarish hallucination on Takodana still haunted her. She hadn’t seen the other side of him, yet, but the glimpse she had caught of the Black Shuck of San Tekka’s old stories was more than enough reason to not ever lay eyes upon the beast.

They took Ren’s command shuttle to Starkiller’s surface. Rey shivered as the temperature took a sudden drop, she peered out to find an expansive tundra. It was strange to see these small white flakes drift down from the sky, dancing in the icy breeze that swept through. She followed Ren out of the shuttle, a path was cleared for him and she remained close by, the towering trees and mists did little to calm her growing apprehension. The woods looked exactly like the illustrations she had in a book San Tekka’s friend gave her when she was little. Gusts of what she presumed was snow swirled around like wavering spirits in the dark.

She was surprised Kylo Ren wasn’t awestruck by the fear and beauty of the frozen forest surrounding them. He seemed unbothered but there were brief moments where he’d suddenly turn his head in the direction of some obscure sound, making her jolt. Rey made a note to herself that she found no sanctuary in Kylo’s shadow, a reminder to her to get out of there as soon as she could.

A squadron of stormtroopers marched behind them; they were what gave Rey a feeling of security. Kylo Ren on the other hand, despite the somewhat kindness he had shown her over the past couple of days, still loomed over her like a reaper’s scythe. They both knew they had yet to trust each other entirely but Rey was now feeling tempted to give in and befriend him if it meant she could rid herself of this burdensome paranoia. She didn’t know what it was, whether the cause of her fears was the Force telling her something or her gut, but she had a nagging sense of impending doom.

He walked ahead of her, nonchalant and calm. Jealousy nudged her as she silently cursed his peace of mind. He was at ease but alert at the same time. Rey couldn’t really find the words to express what she was observing but what she could articulate was how it made her feel. It made her feel unsettled.

It was as if he knew what would happen next, like he could tell what she was thinking but not in the Force, but rather, as if he could tell by the mere scent of her breath. He was five steps ahead of her, and that’s what frightened Rey.

She had a feeling he knew she was going to make her escape soon.

The gaping doors of the base jumpscared her. She heard Ren chuckle as she gave a small yelp at the juttering sound of the frozen metal grating against the ice. They entered the warmth. _Finally!_

She dusted off the frost and flakes as they stepped into the atrium. Rey continued to follow Kylo, keeping close by him as she saw passing personnel give her strange looks and sneers. Soon they were outside once more, her moment of warm bliss had passed.

The turbolift was straight ahead. Kylo Ren saw Rey pass him a glance, but he kept his gaze fixed on the large metal structure carved in the snow. He still held his helmet in his hand; he’d put it on later, just before he entered the throne room. Ren sighed, removed his gloves,, dug his hands into the keypad that controlled the lift, and tried to clear his mind. It didn’t work.

 _You’re training a Rebel, he thought to himself. You’re training a Rebel in the ways of the Force. What would the Emperor think?_ Kylo scrunched his eyes shut, trying to dispel any thoughts of that damned Palpatine; he cursed under his breath and tried to steel himself. _What would the Emperor think, Ren? And Snoke? And the Generals? Ren? Have you lost your mind?_

“Ben,” Rey said, breaking the maddening silence.

Kylo almost recoiled at the sound of his own name. “What?”

“I need to tell you something. The Emperor, his loyalists, I think I-”

The turbolift chimed; the metal doors _hissed_ , _whirred_ , and slid open, and they filed in. Kylo Ren keyed a code into its datapad, shutting the doors and sending it down into Starkiller Base’s infernal depths.

“I was going to say, I-”

“You recognise them,” Ren said. “You’ve seen them before, but you don’t know when.”

Rey nodded. They both waited silently. Kylo could smell her rising fear, her heart was quivering in her chest. For once, in a while, he empathised with someone. He understood her dread and sighed as she shook a little in her place.

Then the lift stopped.

Ren glanced around. Nothing was wrong - at least, nothing _seemed_ wrong.

“What?”

“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t the person who helped build this place.”

The lights flickered and the lift jolted as it continued its journey, bringing a sweep of relief to the two of them. Though, he could sense a change in the air… the lift didn’t just falter on a whim. Or maybe it did? He kept his eyes ahead, not wanting to have to see Rey’s wide eyes dart around. His heart was contorting and looping around in knots as the mists of compassion started to settle.

_How could something so merciless retain these fractures of mercy?_

If she so much as made a sudden move… he’d kill her. He could do it. He breathed out a sigh of relief as his mind began to settle into the comforting resolve. Rey shuffled a little closer to him as the lift shook and stopped once more. The doors parted to reveal two stormtroopers. The dopey soldiers strode into the lift and nodded to their commander.

“Hail, Commander Ren!” one raised his arm in the air as everyone looked at him strangely.

The two troopers bickered as they moved to the back of the lift. Out of sheer boredom, Ren listened in on their conversation.

“We don’t say that.”

“What-”

“Just keep quiet.”

The young Solo sighed and kept looking straight ahead. They were acting a little suspiciously but not suspiciously enough for him to care. The headache and fever had begun to set in again, as well as the trademark hunger. He felt a little drained and drowsy and just generally too tired to deal with anything.

The turbolift’s steel doors closed; for a fleeting moment, Kylo Ren thought that he would make it to the hologram room with his sanity intact...

...until it shook and stopped again.

“Pssst.”

Rey turned around to one of the troopers, who gave a big thumbs’ up! That’s when it all came to her. Finn and Poe! They’d come to get her!

If only they had planned this more smartly and hadn’t got into a lift with the most dangerous man in the First Order.

_**What are you guys doing here?!** _

She peered into their minds for answers, hoping Ren was not listening in to their conversation.

_**We came to rescue you.** _

She rolled her eyes and faced forward.

_**Well, rescue me when we’re all at least five kilometers away from him.** _

The two stormtroopers peered over her shoulder and looked at the man cautiously. He didn’t seem to stir in any way. _Good._

_**Oh my kriffing- Make sure that you all get out of this lift as soon as possible!** _

_**But-** _

_**No, no, no. Change of plan.** _

They looked at the girl curiously as her voice took a strange and sudden tone. Rey tried to conceal her surprise.

_**That wasn’t me.** _

_**Don’t listen to that voice, I’m Rey.** _

_**What?!** _

_**Just stay in the lift. I'll think of something.** _

_**No! Get out of the lift!** _

The girl tried to pass off her groan as a cough as she picked up a snicker from Kylo Ren.

_**Oh you slimy little-** _

_**Whatever you do, follow me once we get out.** _

_**Kylo Ren has infiltrated the conversation, I’m Rey! Don’t listen to him! Listen to me!** _

_**Who's you?** _

_**I'm you!** _

_**No, I'm me!** _

It took all the knight’s strength to not laugh as he saw Rey’s face shrivel up and her brow furrow as she tried to stifle her frustration. The two “stormtroopers” behind them seemed to be doing all kinds of mental acrobatics as each tried to figure out who was who.

_**Wait, hold on… was that…** _

_**Kylo Ren?**_ Kylo Ren said. _**Yeah, that was Kylo Ren. I’m Rey-**_

_**No you’re not!** _

_**Yes you… wait, no, yes I am.** _

Rey sighed. _**Don’t listen to him. I’m Rey. He’s Kylo Ren.**_

_**No!** _

The two stormtroopers glanced at each other in confusion; before they could ask another question, VADER chimed in through the loudspeakers.

_**Oh shit.** _

“FN-2187,” VADER said. “Go back to your post.”

Rey slowly turned around to see one of the two soldiers slowly look up to the speaker.

“FN-2187?”

The trooper quickly looked to the ground, ignoring the voice.

“FN-2187?”

Silence.

“FN-2187?” the droid entity repeated.

“FN-2187?”

Ren grit his teeth as the name slowly became an irritating ring in his ears.

“FN-2187?”

The other one coughed and twiddled his thumbs.

“FN-2187?”

Rey adjusted her clothes and looked to the side.

“FN-2187?”

No one seemed to be paying VADER the attention it so desperately craved. The A.I. needed to switch tactics.

Amidst the awkward silence, the damned thing started fiddling with the lights, dimming them and brightening at uneven intervals whilst making a clicking sound as if imitating a switch.

Kylo Ren tried to not let a growl slip from his lips as the droid began to make the lights brighter on his side of the lift. His patience was slowly chipping away. Rey began to scoot to the other side of the turbolift, heading closer to the troopers. The three of them had their eyes fixed on Kylo as he shifted and bit his lip.

“FN-2187-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Everyone else turned and glared at the stormtrooper.

“Thank you for your co-operation, FN-2187.”

The droid entity chimed again, and left the shitstorm of a lift.

“What’s the plan, Dameron?” Finn muttered.

“Plan?” Poe answered. “What plan? We don’t have a plan.”

“I thought you said you had a plan-”

“I don’t do plans.”

“Was your plan not having a plan?”

“I don’t make plans to not have plans, that’s not how plans work!”

The two stormtroopers glanced at each other.

“So what’s our plan now?”

“Finn-”

“Do you even know where this lift is going?”

Poe Dameron shifted where he stood, evidently nervous. “...No?”

“Oh my God, we’re gonna die.”

The two troopers looked ahead as Ren glanced back at them. He slowly returned his paralysing glare to the front of the turbolift. Rey kept her eyes fixed on him, sensing he knew about the two masqueraders behind them. They all retreated to the other corner as Ren’s already angry aura grew more and more darker.

The lift jolted, now going up instead of down.

“Dameron, you got a plan?”

“I got a plan.”

Both stormtroopers readied themselves. When the metal doors opened - if they opened, Finn thought - they would make a run for it. They would make a run for it, get on an escape pod, and...

_**Finn?** _

Rey glanced at them nervously as the turbolift slowed to a stop. They would run for it, and get on an escape pod, and...

_**Finn, don't-** _

The doors began to open. Finn and Poe charged towards the exit, pushing Kylo Ren and Rey to the side, who tried to scramble out with them. They made a run for it, only to ungracefully tumble to the ground at the end of the lift. Shoes scuffed against the squeaky floor as the three flailed about, trying to all squeeze out the door at the same time; a testament to the fact that no one had an organised, well-thought-out plan. Just as the trio of rebels tripped over one another and Ren, the lift suddenly jerked - causing all to take a tumble.

Ren was the first to get up. What the hell? he thought, mildly disoriented. He glanced below him, only to realise just who was there. _Shit. This lot? Again?_

Hux, Mitaka, and Phasma squirmed under the collective weight of everyone who had been in the lift.

“Ow,” the general said, trying not to grimace at the fact that the group tackle had made him spill his latte all over his overcoat.

Kylo Ren was not used to, nor did he ever want to be, this physically close to General Hux. The ginger in question twisted and turned under the knight’s grip. Kylo grumbled as Hux awkwardly elbowed him in the face. These past fifteen minutes had been the worst fifteen minutes of Ren’s life. Not only was the air around him acidic with Hux’s cologne, but now he had Hux sharing that air with him.

Ren growled. “General Hux, can you not?”

“Can I not?” Hux said. “Can I not? Can you not ruin my overcoat? I was about to-”

“The meeting with… You-Know-Who, was it?”

Hux scrunched his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and tried to pretend someone else, other than _Kylo Fucking Ren_ , _inconvenience in the flesh_ , was on top of him. _You know what_? _Fuck it_. The general elbowed him again.

“Stop.” Ren tried not to lose his shit. “Stop. Elbowing. My. Face.”

“Move to the right!”

“There’s no fucking right to move to!”

“How about the left?”

“Do you want me to phase through a wall, or what?”

The two of them bickered as the rest of the group managed to get back up on their feet. All watched as Hux flipped the commander off, only to realise the reason the two had been struggling about for so long was because in his fall, he had activated a pair of magnetic handcuffs. The chrome metal was a stark contrast to the black clothes both parties wore.

“You better unlock this,” Hux said, disgruntled.

Ren snarled. “No, _you_ better unlock this, or I rip your face off.”

“What the fuck? I can’t even fucking move, you mongrel.”

“You are the worst ginger I’ve ever met-”

“I am the only ginger you’ve ever met! And you know what? You are more irritating now than ever! I’m genuinely surprised you’re not dead yet!”

“I’m genuinely surprised I haven’t made you lunch yet!”

“Why you flea-bitten bastard!”

Kylo Ren sighed, beyond annoyed at Hux’s insubordination; he focused on trying to unlock the handcuffs with the Force. For some reason, though, they wouldn’t give. Something - no, _someone_ \- had interfered with them. He glanced at Rey, who, with Phasma and Mitaka’s help, began to pull the two back inside the turbolift. The two stormtroopers were now standing on the other end of the lift, trying to process everything they had just seen.

“It’s not working.”

Hux scowled. “What? Ren, I can’t believe-”

“I’m serious. It’s not.” Kylo glanced up at Rey. “Did you-”

“No,” she said. “Why would I do this? It’s too painful to watch to warrant the effort.”

He stared at her blankly. _Really?_ The three of them managed to lift - more like drag - both Ren and Hux back inside the turbolift. Soon enough, it was on its way down…

...only to grind to a halt once again.

Everyone groaned.

“What’s wrong with this lift?” Phasma grumbled.

“I don’t know,” Mitaka said, reaching for his datapad. “It was serviced… yesterday? That’s weird.”

“Strange indeed. Who by?”

“I can’t find anything. It says here that this lift was serviced, but there’s no records. No names, no faces, nothing.”

Phasma nodded, then turned towards one of the stormtroopers. “Do I know you?”

“No?” Finn said, before realising who he was talking to. “I mean, yes, Captain.”

Phasma recognised the voice print, but neglected to do anything about it. There were more important things happening right now, like the fact that Hux and Kylo Ren were currently handcuffed together at the other end of the lift.

Kylo Ren himself was surprised he managed to repress his fiery rage for this long; his _situation_ made him feel as though he were on the verge of going absolutely mental. Everyone kept their distance apart from Hux, who was limited by the small chain linking the two men together. Everyone stared at him as he stared at the ground with angry eyes.

“His eyes look silver.” Mitaka whispered to Phasma.

 _Great_. Not only was he getting angrier and angrier by the second, he was now paranoid as all shit.

_I can’t repeat the briefing room incident. I can’t repeat the briefing room incident. I can’t-_

“Ren?”

“What is it, Hux?”

“Your… hand…”

Hux was shaking like a leaf caught in the wind. The rest of the lift had migrated to the corner closest to the exit. Kylo looked down to his hands. And when he looked down, he found strange black veins spreading across the back of his left hand.

_Don’t panic… panicking makes it worse…_

Everyone watched as he ignored his left hand in spite of it contorting and twisting. A small crunch echoed, followed by a collective groan at the gruesome sound. Then Hux saw the black veins recede, along with the small claws that had begun to break through. Nails resealed themselves, veins returned to their normal bluish colour, and Kylo Ren hadn’t killed them yet.

The man breathed a sigh of relief. He was still handcuffed to his worst enemy and stuck in a turbolift, but at least that said worst enemy wasn’t turning into a werewolf any time soon.

 _Gosh, they must have seen pure carnage_ , Poe realised. _I was almost going to be interrogated by him several weeks ago. Dodged a bullet there._

“Remind me not to piss him off… ever.” he whispered to the ex-stormtrooper.

"Yeah."

 _Someone’s traumatised_ , Poe thought. _Actually, everyone is._

The turbolift’s engines started, this time staggering down a few levels. The lights flickered slightly, but remained still once the lift actually seemed to operate properly. Until it came to yet another creaking halt. The doors chimed, then finally decided to open.

The pair of metal doors slid apart slightly, only to then stop. The lift blacked out, enveloping everyone in darkness. A crack of light spilled in from the outside; a crack of light eclipsed by the shadow of a hooded figure.

The figure turned to the side, as if talking to someone; then the doors slid open fully, illuminating the turbolift once more. Whatever was in front of the lift seemed to be confused at the scene before it, but didn’t cower or step away.

“A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one,” it muttered to itself.

Kylo Ren was now the second most terrifying thing in the lift. The shadowy figure took a step into the cramped space. Everyone watched as he stood squarely in front of Ren, who dwarfed him by a mile. He seemed to have no knowledge of how close he was to the death machine that was the grandson of Darth Vader; this man was either someone far worse, or completely and utterly stupid.

“I wager both,” Hux muttered to Mitaka.

Another person followed the hooded figure, but kept to one side of the lift, hiding themselves in plain sight. They wore an opaque mask that covered their entire face; its glossy surface seemed to blend into the walls, creating an illusion of invisibility.

The doors creaked shut, and the turbolift continued its descent into darkness.

Now everyone was afraid; even the masked stranger to the side could be heard shuffling away a little. No one could see anything, no one but _Kylo Ren_.

Ren cherished the dark’s moment of bliss, allowing his eyes to rest from a day’s worth of squinting and trying to not look like he was squinting. He could, of course, see fine with the little light they had, creating a bizarre, yet almost beautiful, image of everyone’s frail white outlines quivering as a ghostly draft swept in from the small crack between the doors. His eyes wandered slightly, trying to find the source of the light, only to see a pair of grey blurs stare back down at him. __What the…__

__**Ben.** _ _

Kylo Ren darted his eyes away from them and back at them again, hoping that this was a dream, hoping that he wasn’t actually handcuffed in a dark lift while another beast stared him down, but it wasn’t. The grey blurs still stared at him, almost judging him.

__**Ben Solo.** _ _

Ren glanced around. _Rey?_ Rey was on the other side of the turbolift. _Why would she want to talk now?_ He turned back to the grey blurs. _Still there. Still staring. Who was it?_ It wasn’t Rey - it _couldn’t_ be Rey. It couldn’t have been any of the others either, as they weren’t, to his knowledge, Force-sensitive. It was either the hooded figure, or…

__**I’m not one of them.** _ _

Kylo Ren’s gaze met the silver blurs.

__**Who are you, then? What do you want from me?** _ _

The grey blurs responded with silence.

 _ _ **Are you…**__ Ren began, before hesitating.

He’d think he would be able to sense a fellow creature, but _this_ … this wasn’t a werewolf. The owner of the grey blurs smelt human, _too human_ , but there was something different about them. Something he had yet to find out.

__**Ben Solo, are you still there?** _ _

He rolled his eyes.

__**What do you want?**_ he asked. _

The grey blurs shone with a sinister intensity.

__**I need to speak with you, alone.** _ _

He broke from the stranger’s piercing glare and stared blankly at a point up ahead, though still kept up the conversation.

_****_**Why? What about?** _ ** ** _

_****_**About your condition.** _ ** ** _

Ren turned to face the grey blurs once more.

_****_**My condition?** _ ** ** _

_****_**Your condition. And the Sith Eternal.** _ ** ** _

His stomach dropped as the voice finished its sentence.

 _The Sith Eternal_ , Ren thought. The two words struck him with a sudden sense of terror. During the time of the Empire, a group of renegade Sith loyalists roamed the galaxy far and wide, searching for the secrets of eternal life - of immortality. They named themselves the Cult of the Sith Eternal, after a Sith that, according to them, possessed that secret within their very veins. Somewhere along the line, after the fall of the Empire, that cult had become an organisation, strong enough to impossibly resurrect Palpatine from the dead. As for the undying Sith, no one truly knew just who they were, or if they even existed at all; but in that moment, almost alone in a pitch-black turbolift, Kylo Ren could have sworn that _they_ were standing in that corner, staring at him with eyes that reflected his own.

_****_**Who are you?** _ ** ** _

The grey blurs seemed to glow even brighter.

_****_**The better question is, who are you?** _ ** ** _

The lights in the lift flickered again.

_****_**Are you doing this?** _ ** ** _

The shadowy figure shook its head.

_****_**But someone else is?** _ ** ** _

Whatever it was nodded in response.

_****_**Who?** _ ** ** _

The lift’s lights suddenly surged to full brightness. Kylo Ren squinted and scrunched up his eyes, unable to shield his face from their blinding fury. He could sense everyone else doing the same… up until a point. Ren’s eyes stung and began to develop a mild ache, a strenuous, tugging pain that he couldn’t quite shake off. It was going to take a lot of strength for him to not snap.

General Hux, handcuffed to the side of the knight, squirmed in his restraints while simultaneously trying to maintain his dignity. This was a situation he had only imagined in his deepest darkest nightmares; never had he thought it would be a reality someday. He eyed Ren, who glared at him and curled his lip back into a snarl.

Kylo Ren shivered where he stood. _Things couldn't get any worse, could they?_ His eyes darted around, surveying the lift. _And then..._

And then he looked behind him.

What Ren saw made him want to make the entirety of Starkiller Base implode on itself.

 _It's him_ , he thought.

_Palpatine._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “It appears I can’t run a diagnostic. That’s strange.”
> 
> “How come?” Ren eyed the A.I.’s intercom suspiciously. 
> 
> “Well, apparently I have been severed-”
> 
> “CONNECTION LOST.”
> 
> And thus, VADER disappeared off the face of Starkiller Base.


	25. That Was My Eye!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The madness in the turbolift continues.

The hooded figure of Emperor Palpatine stared down at Hux with two menacing yellow eyes. Everyone, but the general, Ren and a mysterious figure he couldn’t name, scooted to the other side of the cramped space. 

“Ren?” Hux asked, nervously.

“What?”

“Move it.”

“You-” he began, before seeing the damned Emperor glare at him.

Both of them awkwardly shuffled to the other side, trying their best to coordinate and not trip over each other’s feet. The turbolift, however, had other ideas. It lurched, jolted, then stalled somewhere in the middle, sending both of them flying into Phasma and Mitaka. Hux took the opportunity to reach inside the commander’s pocket and steal something; Mitaka responded by mouthing, ‘Good luck’.

VADER chimed in again. “Uh oh, there seems to be a problem. Sit tight while I try and resolve this.”

Two minutes passed before VADER came on once more. 

“It seems I can’t resolve the problem. I guess you all will have to wait until the lift fixes itself.”

“VADER?”

“Yes?”

“What’s wrong with the lift?” Phasma said, peering up at the speaker.

“Give me a minute while I run a diagnostic.”

Everyone waited silently as VADER hummed to itself and scanned the turbolift. 

“It appears I can’t run a diagnostic. That’s strange.”

Ren eyed the A.I.’s intercom suspiciously. “How come?” 

“Well, apparently I have been severed-”

“CONNECTION LOST.”

And thus, VADER disappeared off the face of Starkiller Base.

“What’s happened to VADER?” Mitaka asked, frantically scrolling through his datapad for answers. 

Not a single result came up. It appeared as though every single cluster of networks on Starkiller had become unresponsive.  
_That can’t be_ , Mitaka thought. _No…_

Phasma turned to him. “Commander Mitaka?”

“Captain, the networks are down.”

“What?”

“Every single one.”

“But we’ve locked down the system. Principle of least privilege, after all. No one’s got full access to anything here. Even you, even me, even the senior techs, even…”

“Commander Ren has certain… privileges,” Hux said, sneering at the man he was currently handcuffed to. “Privileges that bypass any of your fancy data security rules.”

“Are you accusing me of being a saboteur, General Hux?”

“Well, with you squandering every advantage we ever had… yes, I am accusing you of being a saboteur!”

“You insolent little-”

Hux whipped out the silver chain before Kylo could as so much lay a finger on him. The lycanthrope hissed and recoiled as he felt the heat of the metal begin to score him. It was a powerful weapon to be used against Kylo Ren; it seemed so much as looking the chain in the eye brought tears and pain. 

“Do you think I’ve forgotten about your condition? About what you are?”

“General-”

“You’re nothing more than a piece of rotting vermin, you filthy, uncivilised beast,” Hux screeched. “You killed your own officers! You slaughtered them and ate their bloody hearts out! You-”

Kylo Ren’s fist met Hux’s face in no time.

“What the kriff?!”

“Get that away from me! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

General Hux swung the silver chain in his free hand, trying to make contact with Ren. If Mitaka’s research was right, the metal would burn straight through the half-creature if it made even the slightest bit of contact with him. Even if it didn’t, its presence was causing him enough pain as it was. 

“What the fuck am I doing? Ren, look at yourself!”

It was Hux’s turn to take an angry swing with his fist. He struck Ren across the face, causing the man to stumble, yelp, and drag him down to the ground as well.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?”

“YES!”

Kylo Ren glanced to the corner of the lift closest to the exit, where Phasma, Mitaka, Rey, and the two rebel Stormtroopers were cowering in collective fear.

“WHY?”

“OH LOOK AROUND, DIPSHIT, THERE’S HARDLY ANY OF US LEFT AFTER WHAT YOU DID!”

Ren caught Hux’s hand with his left, handcuffed hand, and punched the man with his free one. Both fell to the ground as the sheer force of the hit that knocked Hux off his feet. 

“Seriously?” Finn began. “Here?”

Poe turned to him. “Finn, it’s not like this happens every day.”

“It happens more often than we like it to happen,” Phasma said. “Every day? Yes.”

Finn and Poe looked at her nervously as she casually joined their conversation. 

“Captain-”

“I know who you two are. I’ll let you off this time; it’s not like I can do much with this going on.”

They all turned to see the two men tangled up in each other's arms, curses and roars leaving their bloodied lips as each tried to get the upper hand. 

Phasma sighed. “This is not what the First Order is about, I assure you.”

“So much for being the place of higher civilities,” Rey muttered. 

“What the KRIFF?!”

Everyone turned to face Mitaka, who stared at his datapad in awe.

“We’re in a kriffing Faraday cage!”

“What?!”

“Someone’s locked down the lift! The network hasn’t been shut down elsewhere, which is why no one else has seemed to bat an eyelid. No one knows we’re here!”

“You motherfucker! That was my eye!” Hux screeched. 

Ren snarled. “Be glad I haven’t taken it out already!”

“A Faraday cage, you say? Hmmm, it seems she’s back in the game,” the Emperor murmured. 

Phasma turned to the commander. “Who serviced the turbolift again, Mitaka?”

“Like I said, Captain, I don’t know. There’s no trace of well… anything! How can that be?”

“Strange.”

Someone in Palpatine’s corner spoke.

“I think I know who it is.”

The ageless, androgynous voice that spoke had a delicate, yet authoritative tone; a tone that Mitaka couldn’t place. It came from a shadowy figure wearing something that looked more like a visor than a mask.

“She’s an old friend of mine,” they began. “Well, was. Things happened.”

Mitaka turned towards the figure. “Who?”

“You won’t know her. Hopefully she’ll release us from this mess.”

“Hopefully?”

The figure turned towards the anarchic scene in front of them. “Scratch that, she probably will. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the-”

“Ren, you animal!” Hux squealed.

Kylo Ren grunted in response. “That’s rich coming from the guy who just bit me!”

“You were strangling me!”

“RRRRRAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!”

“RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Then Kylo Ren let out a sound that made Hux freeze on the spot. Everyone in the lift stopped their conversations and turned to face the brawlers. The beastly roar bounced off the walls and continued to murmur long after the half-creature had sealed his lips in shock. Nobody moved, uttered a word or seemed to breathe. Whatever sound Kylo had just produced was not one that should have left a young man’s mouth. What was even stranger was that the sheer volume and vigour of the leonine cry ought to have left his throat hoarse, but it didn’t. 

The roar was bestial, animalistic at best and downright terrifying at worst. Rey had never heard that before; in fact, no one had ever heard something like that. The sheer thunder of Ren’s strange outcry could be felt in her very chest. All the blood drained from her face as she waited to see what would happen next. 

“Hux, get away from him,” Phasma said. “And slowly.”

“What do you mean, ‘get away’? I’m fucking handcuffed to him!”

“Are you sure he doesn’t need an exorcist rather than a med droid?” Mitaka whimpered. 

“Finn,” Poe whispered. “Finn, it’s okay. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.”

Finn was shaking in his boots, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. 

“Finn?” Rey muttered. “Finn-”

The ex-stormtrooper began to cry… loudly. 

“Oh well done, Commander Ren! Now you’ve made a damn stormtrooper cry!”

Phasma turned to the poor man. “Shh, it’s okay. We’ll get you back to indoctrination once we’re out of this lift, and you can forget all about this.”

The soldier’s wails only grew in volume. 

Poe, not wanting to stay here another minute, joined in. 

“Oh for kriff’s sake-”

Rey burst into tears too, failing to repress her bubbling distress. 

“C-Commander Ren?” Mitaka began. “I think you’ve caused an outbreak of mass hysteria…”

Kylo, feeling guilty but also slightly irritated by the high pitched banshee-like cries, tried to resolve the issue he had created. He got up and approached Rey, dragging a reluctant Hux behind him.

“Easy, Rey, I-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Hux tried to shield his ears, and his sanity, with his left hand. 

“Commander Ren, I can’t believe-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Is this seriously what the First Order has-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“This is unacceptable behaviour, Commander-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

With all his strength, General Hux yanked the chain and flung Kylo Ren into Palpatine’s corner, knocking the poor Emperor onto the floor. Naturally, he began to shriek as well.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Palpatine whined, before violently shoving Kylo Ren off of him and getting back up.

Ren paid him no attention. Hux was his concern, not some wrinkly mass of a Galactic Emperor. “What the…” Palpatine whimpered. “Be careful, you! I could’ve broken something!”

“Oh great, first you make half the lift bawl and now I’ve assaulted an old man.” Hux sighed, before Kylo Ren shoved him into the corner, causing Palpatine to stumble once again.

“You brawling fools!” the Emperor yelled. “You’ll pay for this!”

The two decided that they really didn’t care about Palpatine in the slightest, and so kept on fighting. 

“Hux! You really shouldn’t be pissing him off! What if he-”

“Mitaka, it’s a monthly cycle, he can’t do anything until-”

A snap sounded, followed by a guttural growl. The chain between the two men shattered and Hux found himself staring into two angry silver eyes. 

" _ **Touch me, and you die.**_ "

His voice was almost mechanical, distorted as his vocal chords shifted and stretched inside his throat. Ren’s canines were now barely fitting in his mouth as Hux felt the man’s nails slowly sharpen and dig into his skin. 

Everyone resumed their simultaneous yelling, Hux and Mitaka now included. Some of the rebel trio began banging on the durasteel doors, hoping to send the lift plunging down into the Base’s maintenance levels. The only person who seemed to be acting normally was the masked figure, who stood, still and silent as a statue, in another corner of the lift. _Whoever they are must have seen this before_ , Mitaka reasoned. _But how… how can they be so… calm?_

Hux screamed in agony and terror as Ren’s growing claws dug further and further into his shoulder. 

“I forgot to mention that erratic transformations can occur as a form of a defence mechanism,” Mitaka said, reading aloud from his datapad as Phasma did her best to shield him and herself.

“What?!” the captain exclaimed.

“What he means to say is that we’re completely and utterly fucked,” the masked figure began. “But most importantly, General Hux is fucked, since he’s only two centimetres away from having his eyes gouged out.”

“How do you know this?”

“I’m the reason you know this.”

“You wrote the archives?”

“I wrote the archives. Thank you for showing interest in my-”

“MY EYES!” Hux screeched. 

“Holy shit! Okay, it’s happening! It’s happening!” Phasma yelled. 

She joined the rebels and banged on the doors with full force and desperation. 

“He’s… he’s really close to me…” the Emperor whined. “Keep him with Hux, keep _that_ with Hux!”

“SWEET MAKER! WHOEVER HAS PLACED US IN THE CAGE, LET US OUT!” Mitaka squealed, looking up with desperation to the intercom. 

“PLEASE!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Rey turned back to see if the situation was as really as bad as it sounded. She promptly whipped her head back around upon seeing Ren dig his thumbs into Hux’s eye sockets. A stomach churning squelch sounded as blood squirted from where Hux’s eyes once were. 

“SWEET MAKER! HE’S GONE SAVAGE!”

“HELP! HELP! HELP!” Poe slammed the turbolift’s doors, “WHOEVER HAS PUT US HERE! GET US OUT!”

The briefing room incident’s nightmarish memories came flooding back into Phasma’s helmeted head as she realised that they had been in this exact same situation before; except now there was no one on the other side of those doors to save them. They were stuck. 

As a last resort, and to stop Ren from digging his nails into the general’s brain, Hux grabbed the neckline of Kylo’s shirt and pulled it downwards. Then he slammed the silver chain onto the man’s chest. Half-changed and already in an unholy amount of pain, the dark warrior let out a blood curdling shriek as the metal burned through his skin, sinking deeper and deeper into him. Hux was released from his clawed grip to roll onto the floor, blood coursing out of his eye sockets like two fountains. Ren was left on the other side of the turbolift, writhing in agony. Smoke and embers rose from him as the silver necklace branded his chest. 

Phasma, not waiting for the damn creature to fully erupt from Kylo Ren, left her post at the door and pointed her blaster squarely at him. The stranger at the side of the lift didn’t hesitate to rush forward and pull Hux into a corner. Standing in front of him defensively, they snapped their fingers and put him in a trance-like state, using the Force as some kind of anaesthetic. Both of them watched Ren’s silver-white eyes widen.

“Phasma, that’s going to do jackshit!”

“Mitaka, go tend to General Hux. I’m just taking a precaution.”

The stormtrooper captain threw her medkit to the masked stranger, who, with the commander, worked to stop the bleeding and limit the damage.

Rey leaned against the durasteel, terrified, but something told her to look behind and see what was going on. Finn and Poe couldn’t bring themselves to look round; the _snaps_ , _crackles_ , and _pops_ painted a detailed gruesome picture on their own. Her tearstained face grew more and more pallid as she watched everyone move to her corner, including the Emperor and the stranger. It seemed everybody was in the same mind about what was going to happen. 

_**Help.** _

She shook her head as the voice whispered. 

_**Can't die. Not now. Help. Get the chain off of me...** _

Kylo Ren, with shaking hands, reached for the silver chain. It would be risky, but if it meant preventing it from burning through his right lung, he could do it. 

Rey crept forward and swiped it off of him. She tossed it to the side and looked him in the eye sternly. She then, without really thinking about what she was doing and how much danger she was putting herself in, tore a scrap from her robe-like garment and pressed it onto the wound. She didn’t care that he would claw out her brain while doing this; something was telling her this was going to remedy this anarchic situation.

The masked stranger turned towards Rey.

“We need to distract him,” they said. 

“What do you mean?”

“The smell of blood is going to escalate his change; we need to slow it down. Here, I’ll take care of the bleeding, hold this under his nose.”

They handed Rey a small, hand-sewn pouch that smelt awfully flowery. 

“Relax, it’s just lavender.”

Rey passed them the bloodied clump of material and hushed Kylo as he groaned. She held the lavender under his nose and just as the stranger had said, he began to calm down. The stranger waved a hand over his face, and soon enough, he passed out; whether it was from the pain, blood loss, or their machinations, Rey could not tell. Whoever they were went back to tending to Hux almost as quickly as they had arrived.

“I just wanted to take the lift!” Mitaka yelled, “I just wanted to take the _fucking_ lift!”

Rey shook her head as the true extent of the burn was soon revealed to them; his flesh was charred and some of his clavicle poked through. It seemed Hux had inflicted just as much brutal pain as Ren. The bile rose in her throat as the smell of blackened meat filled the air around her. However, he was still changing. Despite being unconscious and entranced, his body still had the audacity to go through with it. She held her breath, hoping the soothing smells of the lavender would do something. The more she cleaned up the wound, however, the faster his body decided to change. With every breath he took, his ribcage creaked and cracked. His eyes fluttered open. 

She tried not to throw up as his gums bled and more teeth pushed through. Rey scrunched up her face as the pungent smell of iron filled her and his rasped breaths echoed through the lift. Suddenly, with whatever strength he had left, he lurched forwards. The scavenger girl yelped and scrambled back, while the stranger recoiled in fear.

"He does his job well; there's no second thoughts, no shred of mercy, no aversion to violence.” The Emperor said, chuckling. “He goes straight to the bloodshed, the brutality, and the _terror_. I'll be needing that once I get my throne back."

The stranger sighed heavily at his words. The brutality they were witnessing was beyond disturbing, and the Emperor's joy in seeing the poor girl cry out in terror did not help the already tense atmosphere, but fuelled it. They finished wrapping a blood-soaked bandage around Hux’s head, put their tools aside, and pulled out a sedative marked, ‘FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY’. They got a little queasy as they approached him - more like charged at him - and made themselves stab the needle in his right arm. The masked figure felt his bones and muscles pull and change under his clothes; a constant reminder that one wrong move would make all hell break out.

“HAVE YOU HAD YOUR FUN? WHOEVER’S UP THERE TOYING WITH US?! ARE YOU FINISHED?!” Poe looked up to the speakers once more.

Rey sat on the ground, her chest rising and falling quickly as she tried to comprehend what was happening. This all felt like some disturbing fever dream. 

_**Tell them to hold on. The turbolift will descend in ten seconds.** _

Rey's eyes widened. _I know that voice!_ It wasn't from anyone in the lift, not even the masked stranger who came with Palpatine, but someone else, someone familiar. She steeled herself, knowing that she would have to keep that information to herself.

"We have to hold on to something," the girl said. 

Everyone turned to her. 

"The lift is going to drop in ten seconds."

The lights flashed on at full brightness. It wasn’t long before the turbolift plummeted down at breakneck speed - and stopped as soon as it had started. 

The doors opened, and everyone spilled out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> "Commander Ren! You could've died!" Patricia said, slapping his hand away as he tried to get back up. "Stop fidgeting so I can get this disinfectant on the wound."
> 
> Then it paused and noticed Ren's hands shaking, violently. Not to mention that the wolf's claws had almost completely pushed through.
> 
> “Pa… tricia…” he whimpered, collapsing under his own weight.
> 
> "OH MY! Right, okay," the droid muttered, reaching for his head. "Oh, your temperature is increasing. This isn't good."
> 
> It began to panic as everyone watched it flail its mechanical arms about, whilst trying not to melt its own flash drive.


	26. Red As The Styx

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren arrives at the infirmary (again). Patricia isn't impressed.

Rey and the stranger had Kylo hauled on their shoulders, each taking an arm as they hobbled out. Mitaka and Phasma took Hux. Finn and Poe, unsure of what to do, decided that they’d stick with Rey and see to it that she’d be safe. The Emperor silently slunk out, slipping away, hidden by the chaos. 

“We’re at infirmary level,” the stranger said. “We need to clear the lift.”

Phasma stepped forward. “I don’t think I can stomach looking at this scene for another minute.”

“Neither can I,” Mitaka began. “We’ll do some digging around in the data facilities to try and pinpoint who locked us in that turbolift. Maybe the troopers could accompany you.”

Finn and Poe looked at each other and then at the captain.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Take him from us!”

Tentatively, they relieved Phasma of the burden on her shoulders and followed Rey down the hall, unsure of where they really needed to go. No one uttered a word, silenced by trauma and shock. Hux had slowly begun to regain consciousness, murmuring something as he felt for the bandaging around his head with a bloody hand; Finn tried not to gag at the sight of Hux’s pale face crusted with flecks of dried crimson. Poe just kept his eyes straight ahead, staring blankly through his helmet at a spot on the wall. He had seen many terrible injuries over his piloting career, but nothing as terrifying as this. He seemed to be keeping his cool much better than Finn who was only now beginning to walk faster. They were now marching ahead of Rey’s little group, heading straight for the infirmary’s wide durasteel doors.

As they darted past her, she caught sight of the wall next to the infirmary. The once-drab grey walls were emblazoned with bright red and black graffiti.

"What the?” Rey began.

The stranger and Rey stared at the strange painting before them, as well as the poor overworked droids desperately trying to scrub the stuff off the walls. A KX-Series droid came out of white-lit infirmary, its head hung low as it saw the lack of progress being made. Then it turned to the clumsy sight of Kylo Ren just about maintaining balance while leaning on two sets of shoulders. 

"Commander Ren! What happened to you?!" it said, taking Ren from Rey's shoulders and helping the other person drag him into the med bay. The knight began to wake from his trance, eyeing the blurry figures that surrounded him with a look of confusion.

The droid left Rey to gawk at the artwork. It was the portrait of a stormtrooper with crosses over the eyes and mouth with a caption asking, ‘What am I fighting for, again?’. She watched the red and black paint drip down the wall as the droids scolded and sighed. Soapy water was slapped onto the graffiti. The poor maintenance droids looked like they were on the verge of shutting down, clearly they had been working on this for a while. What the girl found even stranger was that the longer she looked at the art, the more she recognised it. She knew that art style from somewhere. _But where?_

She kept looking at it, trying to place the work somewhere as she stepped into the infirmary. The KX droid was slaving away, scolding Ren for being careless whilst scrambling for the correct dressing. 

"Where did he get that horrendous burn from?"

"Silver, ma'am."

The droid looked a little taken aback by the formal address but seemed to be more shocked at the fact that Kylo Ren had come into contact with pure silver. 

"Commander Ren! You could've died!" Patricia said, slapping his hand away as he tried to get back up. "Stop fidgeting so I can get this disinfectant on the wound."

Then it paused and noticed Ren's hands shaking, violently. Not to mention that the wolf's claws had almost completely pushed through.

“Pa… tricia…” he said, collapsing under his own weight.

"OH MY! Right, okay," the droid muttered, reaching for his head. "Oh, your temperature is increasing. This isn't good."

It began to panic as everyone watched it flail its mechanical arms about, whilst trying not to melt its own flash drive.

“I feel like I’m going to bust a gear or something while I’m commissioned with you! Why are you being so difficult?! Commander Ren, stop-”

The droid tried to hold Kylo down as he pushed its face up, claws denting the metal and scraping the paint away. The stranger helped hold him down, stifling a yelp as he dug his other hand into their forearm. 

“We need to slow down the-”

“I AM A MEDICAL DROID! I KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!”

Patricia was in full panic mode now. It shoved the masked person aside and fixed Kylo Ren onto the bed, then had one of the actual medical droids continue to restrain him while it disinfected his wound with the velocity of a god. Rey and the stranger stood back and watched Patricia, determination burning into its metal brow, begin to slow down the bleeding and encourage the body to repair itself. It was dead silent as it worked its magic. 

“Whoever’s idea it was to repurpose a KX-Series droid as a medical droid needs a raise.” 

Rey nodded, agreeing with the stranger’s words. 

“What’s your name?”

“Nine,” they replied. 

“It’s good to meet you, Nine-”

_CRUNCH!_

Patricia paid no heed to Kylo slowly tearing off its forearm as it placed the transparent dressing over the burn. It let him gnaw off its left hand; as long as he didn’t tear its processing chip out, it was fine. 

“Commander Ren, you can have my hand but just let me do this!” it shifted a little, trying to patch him up one-handed. “Ren, Ren? Commander Ren, stop trying to stand up! Sit down! Why- No! Stop getting up!"

He disobeyed, as he usually did with every other medical professional. 

"Why are you-"

_CRASH!_

"Commander! That was my favourite glass! Now it's broken! STOP STANDING UP!"

Patricia sighed and picked up its left hand, which was now covered with blood and what resembled dog slobber. _He had to make everywhere he went look like a murder scene, huh?_

“Eugh… “

Stray wires hung from the wrist joint, drops of clouded spit dripped from the copper strands. The poor droid was beyond revolted. 

Kylo Ren stumbled and leant against a wall, his consciousness both fading and sobering up as the shock began to subside. 

“Ben?” 

Rey took a small step towards his shaking form as he groaned loudly. He then became silent, spit and blood dripping from his mouth. His stomach was hot with hunger too. Rey, oblivious to this, took another step forward. And another. Her hand hovered over his back as he whimpered. She saw the small, metallic claws poking out from the seams of his boots. Things weren’t exactly looking good. 

Finn looked over to the other side of the infirmary. He was a little glad he was handed Hux rather than Kylo Ren. Hux didn’t have that lycanthropic endurance, and collapsed moments after coming to. Poe sat in a chair, letting the droids do their thing while his friend hugged a bucket. They definitely had it much easier than Rey, the stranger, and the First Order’s least qualified medical droid; however, things did seem to be calming down. The silhouettes of the three of them seemed to become slower and more composed, a sign that things perhaps weren’t as bad as they seemed. He watched Rey reach out for his hand.

“Ben Solo?” she began.

Kylo Ren’s eyes moved to meet her, while the rest of him clung to the white walls tainted with his drying blood. His hair fell over his eyes, casting a dark shadow over his face and emphasising his silver glare. Rey gulped a little, trying to predict what he’d do next. He was quiet too, only gravelly breaths came from him and nothing more. He didn’t speak, he didn’t make a face, he didn’t do anything. He just stood there, shaking and shuddering. His eyes were fixed on her as a cold shiver ran down her spine.

“Ben? Are you okay?”

Silence. 

“Ben, it’s all right. You’re in the infirmary… “ she placed her hand on his back. 

His eyes widened. 

A loud scream reverberated through the infirmary, causing every being with even a sliver of a consciousness to snap around at once. 

Rey felt herself being pushed backwards. 

“No!” she shrieked, before she became absolutely paralysed by fear. 

She saw a shadow of a figure rush over and grip what looked like a lightsaber clasped to their belt. They ignited the blade, snapped their fingers... and before Kylo Ren could rip out Rey's heart, he collapsed to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Ren steeled himself and stepped forwards once again, pulling back his hood and raising his lightsaber as he advanced. He was almost there; he was almost _home_. 
> 
> Home. 
> 
> That wasn't right. 
> 
> This wasn't any kind of home at all.


	27. Some Place Like Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren dreams.

“No!”

The skies above Ahch-To tore themselves asunder.

Clouds parted, oceans swelled, and creatures roared from the depths of the sea. Violent, rhythmic drops of rain poured upon the planet’s surface, enveloping anyone and anything in its path with a deluge of blackened water. Waves rose from an invisible point on the horizon, rolling and raging towards the shore with an almost fiery intensity, colliding with corroded chunks of granite and basalt at the foot of a towering cliff. Smoke met salt, mist met moss, and fate met freedom. The night was cold, deathly cold; the air stung with a piercing finality, and not a single soul dared to take that fatal step into oblivion.

“How did you do that?”

A lightsaber ignited in the distance.

Its bleeding edge burnt with a searing red that seemed to be branded by fear itself. A plasma beam quivered and quaked, only slightly illuminating the rocky, rugged pathway underneath. The weapon’s wielder emerged from the shadows, their figure morphing from mist and murk to something discernibly more human. Something snarled in their direction; struck by a primal sense of fear, they stopped in their tracks. Two gauntleted hands gripped the saber’s hilt tightly, obscuring its telltale crossguards as they trembled, terrified.

“You wouldn’t want to know.”

Kylo Ren slowly turned around.

No one was behind him. No one was in front of him. No one was going to hold a knife to his throat. Ren steeled himself and stepped forwards once again, pulling back his hood and raising his lightsaber as he advanced. He was almost there; he was almost _home_. 

Home. 

That wasn’t right. 

This wasn’t any kind of home at all. 

The knight sighed as he ascended a series of stone steps that spiraled up to a small platform overlooking the First Jedi Temple. _No_ , he thought. _This wasn’t my home. This was the place where Luke Skywalker almost killed me. And tonight..._

Thunder rumbled. A swift-darting beam of lightning struck a spot on the silver ground, a herald of some coming vision from another world.

_Tonight, he'll try._

“How long?”

 _How long?_ Kylo Ren furrowed his brow. _How long?_ The sentence didn’t come from him, or anyone else. He looked down at himself, trying to figure out exactly how he got here. Everything seemed to faint and fade away at his glance, and nothing seemed to be where it should. Frowning, Ren rushed down the serpentine steps and towards his hut, hoping to get there before Skywalker did. The Force told him that the Jedi was close; dangerously close. He would have to be quick.

“He’s going to be out for an hour.”

The knight slowed down at the words, but didn’t stop. _Out?_ His eyes darted around the temple. _Out for an hour_ , the voice repeated. Ren shook his head. He couldn’t have been out. The buildings and structures that surrounded him were almost as real as anything to his eyes, and the Jedi students that he had killed were almost there, almost alive. He wasn’t dreaming and he wasn’t awake. Where was he?

“You’re sure, aren’t you?”

Kylo Ren made it to his tent. He readied and raised his weapon, holding the edge of the curtain with a tentative hand. A glimpse was all it took to confirm his suspicions; Luke Skywalker was standing in front of the veil that separated them, holding his as-yet-unignited green lightsaber in the cold steel of his bionic hand. Sparked by rage, Ren pushed the searing red blade through the fabric and into him, determined to see the silhouette of the Jedi crumble and collapse.

Nothing happened.

“I’m sure.”

Everything afterwards happened in a mere instant. The knight pulled the curtain aside and struck at Skywalker again, only to see him swing his own blade downwards. His younger self reached for his blade and swung it at his former master’s; their two lightsabers clashed in the dead of night, the sheer energy of it causing a deafening din in the Force. Kylo Ren felt awed and afraid all at once. 

“Ben, no!”

Streaks of red flashed through the eyes of Ren’s younger self, as Kylo Ren watched him seize up in sheer anger. The apprentice clenched his left fist, sending small blue sparks into the air all around. He didn’t realise that the structure was caving in on itself until it did, bringing him down to the ground with everything else.

“Why?” he heard his younger self yell. “Why?”

Kylo Ren almost effortlessly lifted himself out of the rubble. In front of him, the boy who once called himself Ben Solo screamed at the now-clear sky, whose dark, rolling clouds had split once again to reveal a starry abyss. A white sphere sat alone in the night sky, shimmering down at both of them with a blinding kind of fury. It was large, almost unnaturally so, and seemed to just sit above the horizon, as if it were resting at the summit of an invisible obelisk.

“Why did you do it?” he snarled.

The knight’s younger self pointed his blue lightsaber at the centre of that great disk. Kylo Ren watched, paralysed, as the boy’s eyes narrowed, his face contorting into one of vicious, visceral anger. 

Ben Solo raised his lightsaber.

Bolts of lightning ran from the tips of his fingers to the blackened sky above and the Jedi Temple below. Clouds rolled back in, ravaging the ground with rain, while thunder rumbled and roared like a monstrous creature. Somewhere far away, a wolf howled; neither Kylo Ren or his younger self cared to turn towards it. The storm engulfed them and swallowed them whole, destroying everything it came into contact with in the briefest of seconds.

Everything except the both of them.

Fiery tongues of flame rose and swirled as the wind swept across the path. Stunned by his own actions, Kylo Ren stood there, watching the fire twist and collapse, rise and writhe, divide and multiply all at once. It reminded him of something from his past - _a shadow, perhaps_ \- something that was solid and yet melted into air. A rippling, wavering figure flickered amongst them as they licked the reddened underbelly of the growing clouds above; unmoving, it stood in the mirage, gazing at him with human eyes that seemed to mirror his own. Ren pulled his hair back and squinted, staring back through the inferno.

 _It couldn't be them_ , he thought.

_It can't be._

It was.

 _They_ stepped out from their cocoon of fire, slowly stepping forwards as sharp fragments fell from the heavens above. Silver sparks surrounded them as they walked through the flames, keeping their brown eyes fixed on Ren’s own. The edges of their body dissolved into darkness, almost ghost-like, almost haunting. Puddles strewn across the stony path overflowed as the rain fell, their murky pools peering into him, searching his soul. The knight glanced down; before him, rippling in the storm, was the face of a beast. A long, almost melancholic wolven visage stared back with striking grey eyes. Its slit pupils constricted at the sight of him as a set of bloodstained teeth emerged from its lips. As Kylo Ren held his mouth agape, wondering what he was seeing, so did the wolf. 

The creature’s black mane framed its face just as his hair framed his own. Ren scrunched his nose, trying to make sense of this, only to see the damned thing do it as well. He was drenched with rain, and tears had fallen from his eyes; likewise, its fur was glossy, and its eyes glazed over with water. Its long, almost spindly ears drooped with rain, its body gaunt and starved. 

_It_ was starving.

 _He_ was starving.

But what was he starved of? 

Kylo Ren doubled over as a wave of pained hunger hit him. Now nose-to-nose with the reflection, he watched spit drip from the wolf’s mouth in long, slimy strands, hanging to its lips and teeth like molten glass. A shadow loomed over him; the knight saw its silver eyes flash in the murk before it spoke.

"Ben."

Kylo Ren kept his gaze on the pool beneath him.

"Ben Solo."

The knight reluctantly turned around to face them.

“You.”

“Yes, Ben. Me.”

Their brown eyes glimmered in the dying light; the knight saw an uncanny similarity between theirs and his own, as if they were but a younger version of him. _Human_ , Ren thought. _Almost human._ _How?_ He remembered the grey blurs in the lift, in the dark. _This can’t…_

“What is this?” Ren asked. “What have you done?”

The shadow-turned-human suppressed a silent smirk. 

“Who are you?”

“Do you need to know?”

Kylo Ren got up, still gripping the lightsaber in his hand.

“You never told me who you were,” he said, glancing briefly at the absolute devastation behind him. “You never said a single thing about yourself that day on the cliffs. When you turned me-”

“I didn’t,” they said nonchalantly.

Ren tensed up, frustrated. “But you did. You’re in the service of the Sith Eternal, aren’t you? That’s why you're with Palpatine. You're doing all of this to appease him."

“I don’t serve him.”

“You don't serve him? If you didn’t, he would have killed you by now.”

“Some people are beyond that.”

A snap of their fingers sent the skies and the seas around them swirling. Everything morphed into a cloud of mist and haze, of shadows and secrets, of light and dark. Kylo staggered back, struck by a sudden, sharp, shot of pain. It felt as though a set of metal claws had sunk themselves deep into his skin. At that very moment, everything collided and collapsed back into reality - or at least, what felt like it.

Ren looked around his new surroundings. “The hologram room? Starkiller? How did you-”

“Silence, you filthy creature,” Palpatine growled.

Kylo glared up at him, mildly insulted. The Emperor was there, right in front of him, though the Sith Lord didn’t seem to notice the knight. Instead, he was glaring at the dim projection of Snoke, whose once-smooth movements were now stiff and staggered. At the sound of Palpatine’s words, the Supreme Leader seemed to freeze entirely. _What happened?_

“Now where were we?”

The Sith stepped forward. Strangely, the Emperor could see them - well, see them enough to address them directly.

“The…” they began, sparing a glance at Kylo. “Kylo Ren.”

“Ah, yes. The rabid cur himself.”

Ren went from mildly insulted to downright outraged.

“Emperor, you need to understand that lycanthropy-”

“Is not a toy, but the razor-sharp edge of a blade at your neck. I’m well aware of your writings. But weapons win wars, and this is every single weapon we need.”

Kylo seethed with anger, his lightsaber simmering in his grip. He had no control, no power - he was only the object of other people’s desires. His condition was everything that defined him; _lycanthropy this, werewolf that_. No one truly saw him as a human, but everyone saw him as a beast.

“This is our chance,” Palpatine said. “This is our reason. This child, this creature, our killing machine. Our new enforcer will never be swayed by its weaknesses again, for it shall have none. It doesn’t love. It doesn’t care. It rules with fear, it dominates with terror. Gone are the days of the Light and the Jedi, peace and knowledge, serenity and harmony. With this weapon - this ultimate weapon - we shall bring order through subordination, stability through strength, power through passion, victory through violence. With this - with _it_ , its nature red in tooth and claw - the galaxy will be reborn.”

“If you’re certain, Emperor, then…” the Sith said, before dropping their voice to a low murmur. “Then it shall be done.”

Kylo Ren was awed and angry and scared all at the same time. His plan was to bring an end to the Sith and the Jedi… not be its means to an end. He felt objectified; the promises of freedom that led him to become Kylo Ren had only given him a new station of servitude.

“Why?”

“Ben Solo, I-”

“You lied to me,” Ren snarled. “You promised me power, passion, strength. You said the Dark Side would free me. But all you want to do - all you’ve ever wanted me to do - is put me in chains.”

“Look, you don’t know-”

“I don’t know? I don’t? You serve him! You serve him, and now you want to make me his killing machine-”

“I didn’t say that-”

“You did. You said that since the day you pledged yourself to that beast.”

Ren raised his lightsaber. Its searing red blade made his brown eyes glimmer with sheer rage. The Emperor chuckled deeply in the background, as if satisfied by this turn of events; as if he could see what was happening all around the both of them, wherever the both of them even were.

“I’ll destroy you. The Sith. The Emperor. All of it. Every single monster of mine will be dead.”

“Strike me down in anger and you yourself will become one.”

The knight swung his lightsaber. 

The sound of his war-like screams echoed through the throne room as he sprinted forward, determined to decapitate the Sith in front of him with a single stroke. His weapon surged as it moved towards its target, only to collide with two others. A black abyss of a blade and its deep red, almost-bloodstained twin pushed it back, knocking Ren off balance for a split second. His fury still was as fiery as ever, it seemed as though nothing was going to stop him from swiping their head clean off their shoulders. 

When Kylo steadied himself, he found the Sith staring down at him. He rushed towards them again, hoping his brute force would hold out in the end. The swarthy figure saw his attack, turned towards one of the walls, and ran up the cold steel. No gravity seemed to pull them down towards the ground; their pure will held them up for them to hurl themselves at the knight and drag him to the ground.

_So that's how things work._

Ren reached out to the ceiling with his free hand and clenched, hard, against thin air, trying to send shards of stone falling down. The Sith scrambled away, giving him enough time to turn in the opposite direction and search for something - _anything_ \- that would help him escape. He closed his eyes, trying to draw on the Force. 

_The Force._

Kylo’s eyes snapped open.

The dreamscape swirled and shifted from the hologram room to a thousand other places at once. There was the Jedi Temple, now a burning, blazing ruin; then a great, gaping hall on a planet of darkness, decaying into dust; then the Millenium Falcon, once homely and comforting, now desecrated with blood and tears. The knight darted around the ship, heading for the exit, heading for a way out of this damned nightmare. He found the boarding ramp deployed, overlooking what he thought was Chandrila... only to find the vast emptiness of space. There were no stars, no lights, no civilisations; only darkness.

Ren almost felt the tip of a darksaber touch the back of his neck.

“This is what he’ll do,” the Sith said.

He reached for a handlebar and grabbed on to it, slowly turning around to face them.

“And?” the knight questioned. “You serve him. This is what you want. This is what you’ve always wanted. Destruction.”

“No, I-”

“Don’t even start.”

He gazed down into the gaping void.

“You’re like me, you know,” the figure said.

Ren shook his head. “No.”

“No? Look around you, Ben Solo. Look around and see.”

Dim, star-like lights flickered and flashed around Kylo Ren. A thousand voices spoke and whispered and chanted all at once, trying to reach out, trying to carve out and claim their piece of him. The darkness came alive; visions of past and present and future flared left and right. Each one tried to tell him something, but it was too much - too much, and yet never enough.

_No?_

The Sith. Kylo had heard them say that not more than a moment ago. Their voice - nameless, formless - reverberated like a feedback loop in his own mind. He was backing away ever so slightly, his feet falling closer and closer to the ramp’s edge; paralysed by a force greater than fear, Ren couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and couldn’t think.

_Why did you have to fucking leave!_

_I'm sorry, I-_

_I'm sure you are!_

_Leave?_ Ren thought. _Leave where?_ _Leave who?_ The first voice belonged to the mysterious figure that stood in front of him; there was no doubt about that. He didn’t recognise the second voice. It sounded deep and soothing, almost like a voice he could have sworn he’d heard at some point. Exactly _who_ it was evaded him.

_Look around you, Ben Solo._

Kylo looked around again. The abyss that surrounded him gave way to a sweltering sea of sand. A young girl - _Rey_ , he realised - chased after an ascending star. A spacecraft. Her parents were on the transport, and it was rising from the depths of the desert to their fateful deaths. 

_No!_

Rey screamed in despair. Kylo saw her alone, truly alone, and almost saw a sliver of himself. An alien figure tried to get her to back away, to quieten down, but she would not. She glanced for a split second at the hovering Falcon before the wasteland crumbled away, leaving nothing but dreams and dust behind.

_Look around and see._

Ren could almost see the cacophony of voices clashing and colliding with each other. Each one fought tooth and nail for the lone human that stood, silent and afraid, in front of them. _Ben_ , they said. _Ben Solo_. _Kylo Ren._ _Jedi Saviour_. _Jedi Killer_. _Son of light_. _Son of darkness_. The din grew louder, deafening. _Heir apparent to the galaxy_. _Heir apparent to Darth Vader_. The knight grimaced. _The son of Skywalker_.

_Not now, not now, any time but now…_

Light and darkness morphed into a snow-covered forest. _Starkiller Base_. Kylo Ren saw himself, in pain, clutching a tree beside him. He snarled and hissed and roared, trying to stop the inevitable. His slit, silver eyes widened in fear, pleading for help, desperate.

“NO!” the knight yelled.

Ren rushed towards the vision of himself, only for him to lose his footing. The forest and Starkiller Base vanished beneath him; only the sightless pit of space remained, threatening to consume him whole as he dangled over the edge of the Millennium Falcon’s boarding ramp. His grip wasn’t going to hold.

“Take my hand,” the shadowy figure whispered. “Take it.”

Kylo glanced at his right hand below him, where his lightsaber rested tightly within his grip. If he wanted to lift himself up - if he wanted to save himself - he would have to let go of his weapon. _Can I ever?_ he thought, gazing down at it. _It’s me_. _It’s a part of me_. _It’s who I am_.

"Please."

The blade burned brighter.

“I can’t,” Ren said. “I can’t, not like this.”

He felt his hold on the metal above give way.

“Ben…”

Kylo Ren let go.

Darkness swallowed him whole as he watched himself fall. Fear pooled in his stomach, in his veins, in his mind; it usurped his thoughts, his actions, his every intent, until there was nothing left but pure instinct. Blood pumped hot through his veins and burned through him like an inferno. Ren felt exhilarated and empty at the same time, so close but yet so far. He scrunched his eyes shut as he sunk further and further into the void, heading towards _nothing_ , heading towards _everything_.

A cold spray of water rushed up to meet him. Ren coughed, spluttered, and swam to the surface. He opened his eyes, pulled himself up onto a small ledge of stony land, and looked around; he was in some kind of cave or cavern, and in front of him stood a mirror made of glass that rippled like water. The knight stepped forward - as he did, an army of his own reflections marched to meet him.

Ren tentatively clicked his fingers, waiting for a response - a reply. A thousand _clicks_ followed in response, each one milliseconds after the other, breaking the cave’s relative silence a thousand times over. The single snap echoed and echoed long after he stilled himself. Only when all was quiet once again did the knight dare to look up at his own face. He could see, almost feel, a sadness in his own eye that stung like salt on a dozen wounds. 

And yet...

_And yet..._

His face was normal. He hadn’t grown six inches. His eyes weren’t saturated. There were no fangs, no claws, nothing bestial about him; just _him_. He was entirely human, like he hadn’t been since a month and a half ago. 

This was wrong. 

This was too good to be true.

Ren gripped his still-ignited lightsaber and turned around.

A pair of silt grey eyes stared back at him, eyes belonging to a creature, a monster, a werewolf. Kylo screamed at the sight of it, and slashed its glazed visage with his lightsaber, not stopping until he was certain it was dead. Over and over again, he stabbed at the ghost of his own reflection, wanting to kill it, wanting to end it. Only when the beast was nothing but scattered, shattered shards of glass at his feet did he even think to stop.

“You’ve slaughtered yourself. Well done.”

The Sith crept out of the crack in the wall.

“I-”

“Are you happy now?”

Kylo Ren sighed.

“Look, Ben. The more you deny-”

“Deny what I am?” he said. “I never wanted to be this way. I never asked to be this way. And for what? I am not your killing machine. I belong to no one but myself.”

“Ben Solo, you have to see reason. This isn’t about Palpatine. I don’t care about him, I don’t give a damn about him-”

“But you’re a Sith. And you’re in his service.”

“Yes.”

Ren raised his weapon.

“I’m sick of this!” he roared. “Of all of you! Luke, Leia, Han, Palpatine, and _you_. All of you want a piece of me, because you seem to think that I have some kind of destiny that you want to be a part of. Because I’m a Skywalker. Because I’m a Solo. Because I’m strong with the Force.”

“Ben-”

“I’m not Ben anymore.”

Kylo Ren prowled towards the Sith.

“Don’t try it.”

Kylo charged at the shadowy figure with his lightsaber, only to be mauled by a wolf-like creature that came from the dark. It peered into him with slit silver-brown eyes that perfectly matched his own, hungry for food, hungry for blood. The beast smirked with sadness as it stared Ren down; crimson tears seeped out of its eyes and streaked down its face as it sunk its metal claws deep into his skin, deep into his chest - and ripped out his heart. He couldn’t shout, he couldn’t scream, and he couldn’t speak. Whatever loomed over the knight had completely paralysed him, either with fear or the Force or both. 

The cowering monster held Ben Solo’s heart in its outstretched, bestial hands, watching it pulsate while the man whom it belonged to quivered and quaked with fear. It snarled and shrieked and spluttered, choking on its own tears; it shook, burdened by an intangible emotional weight, and sobbed at the sight of the human underneath him. Anguished, angry, and filled with rage, the beast rose up and howled, baring its bloodstained fangs to the full moon.

In one swift, silent motion, it swallowed Ren’s heart whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “No!”
> 
> Nine unclasped the saber on the right side of their belt, igniting it in an instant. It was more of a precaution than anything else. If Kylo Ren were to resist their illusion, the blade - dark, glowing, _dangerous_ \- would stop him in his tracks, giving the others time to get themselves out of Starkiller Base’s infirmary. Not that they had much time to think about an escape plan. The knight had already tackled Rey to the ground; he clawed at her, scratched at her, and tried to tear her heart out.
> 
> It was now or never.


	28. I Am the Senate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nine grapples with Kylo Ren, Rey, and the Emperor.

“No!”

Nine unclasped the saber on the right side of their belt, igniting it in an instant. It was more of a precaution than anything else. If Kylo Ren were to resist their illusion, the blade - dark, glowing, _dangerous_ \- would stop him in his tracks, giving the others time to get themselves out of Starkiller Base’s infirmary. Not that they had much time to think about an escape plan. The knight had already tackled Rey to the ground; he clawed at her, scratched at her, and tried to tear her heart out.

It was now or never.

The Sith closed their eyes, took in a deep breath, and snapped their fingers. Within seconds, Kylo collapsed to the floor.

It worked.

 _Just as Palpatine had taught you_ , they thought. _No_. Nine steeled themselves. Now was not the time to be thinking about that. He could tap into their mind whenever he pleased. There were words that couldn’t be said, thoughts that couldn’t be thought, things that couldn’t be done; the Sith Eternal had its rules, and the Emperor was its ultimate authority.

Somewhere in the distance, the skies of Ahch-To tore themselves asunder.

“How…?”

The Sith snapped out of their reverie and put their saber away. Rey stumbled backwards, exasperated and astounded.

“How did you do that?” she asked. “That thing you did. Your lightsaber. I’ve never seen that before.”

Nine chose their words carefully. “It’s not a mind trick, if you’re asking. It’s something else. A Sith ability.” They glanced at the girl through their visor. “And the saber? You wouldn’t want to know.”

Rey furrowed her brow as she got up. The Sith wasn’t surprised. No one in the New Republic even said so much of a single word about the order, and the First Order neglected to mention the part it had played in the founding of the Galactic Empire, for obvious reasons. 

The Emperor was an evil man. _Is_ , Nine almost thought, but didn’t. 

A bleeding lightsaber burnt with a searing red at the corners of their thoughts; frowning underneath their visor, the Sith grit their teeth together and pushed the ever-growing vision of Kylo Ren aside, trying to focus on the girl in front of them.

“How long will he be out?” she asked, slightly concerned.

“Ren?” the Sith said. They pressed their fingers against his head. A flurry of images flashed and flickered through their mind, each one more vivid than the last. _A raging fire_. _The Millenium Falcon_. _A mirrored cavern_. Kylo Ren rushed down to what had been his home and tried to figure out exactly how he got there. Nine pulled away. “He’s going to be out for an hour.”

Rey nervously glanced at the knight. “You’re sure, aren’t you? About this?”

“I’m sure.”

“You’re a Sith. How do you know I can trust you?”

“I pledge my allegiances to religion,” Nine said. “You'd trust a Jedi without a second thought. What difference does trusting a Sith make?”

Without saying a single word more, the Sith heelyed away. They glided to the nearest available turbolift, which wasn’t too far from where they were. The lift they had previously been in - where the _incident_ happened, if you could call that one - had been sent to the service floor for decommissioning. The First Order was already traumatised enough as it was; it didn’t need another reminder that Kylo Ren just so happened to be a terrifying, blood-thirsty beast.

 _Terrifying_. Nine entered the turbolift. _A terrifying, blood-thirsty beast_. They had enough experience dealing with werewolves to get to grips with their true nature; enough experience tracking them, drugging them, killing them. Enough experience to drink their blood. They took in a sharp breath. _Not now_. The durasteel doors snapped shut, the lift chimed, and the lights wavered slightly. _A beast_. _A monster_. _A man-wolf_. The Sith saw echoes of the past come back to life before their eyes. _Beast_ , _monster_ , _man-wolf_. _Beast_. _Monster_. _Man-wolf_.

 _Thirteen_.

“Ben, no!”

The lights in the turbolift faded to black. Nine could see Ben Solo right in front of them, parrying Luke’s lightsaber, bringing his former home down with him, rising from the rubble to raise his weapon to the sky. 

“Why?” he cried. “Why?” 

A starry abyss lingered on the edge of destruction as a wolf howled in the distance. “Why did you do it?” Unadulterated anger rushed through his body and blood as he sent bolts of lightning hurtling towards the sky. The Sith watched as the Jedi Temple burned like a dying sun, before a surging storm engulfed it and swallowed it whole.

Invisible flames swept around them as they stood within the lift, still and silent. Kylo Ren was a distant figure in the cracks and crevices of the Sith’s thoughts, but he almost seemed as real as the air in front of them, squinting as he stared through the inferno, trying to make sense of it all. His eyes darted down to a gaping pool beneath his feet, where he gazed at his own wolven reflection with both fear and awe in equal measure.

Nine reached him soon enough. Their reflection - a pallid figure with slit, silver eyes that flashed in the murk below - loomed over Ren like a shadow.

_**Ben.** _

He kept his gaze on the pool beneath him.

_**Ben Solo.** _

Kylo Ren turned around to face them. "You," he said, almost angry.

_**Yes, Ben. Me.** _

The turbolift chimed; it had arrived at the hologram room, where Palpatine was no doubt waiting for them. Nine watched the durasteel doors slide open with a sense of trepidation, but made themselves skate forwards towards the platform. They didn’t hesitate; they couldn’t hesitate. 

The Emperor was always watching.

“And so they arrive,” he said. “My faithful servant of the Sith Eternal.”

The Sith bowed as decorum dictated them to.

“Snoke, Supreme Leader of the First Order.”

Nine bowed at the dim blue light of the projection.

“We do not need an introduction,” Palpatine began. “You know what this is about.”

“I’m well aware.”

“That little… I can’t call her a shit, can I?”

“No, you can’t,” Nine replied.

“That little kriffing bastard! Do you understand how humiliating it is to be one-upped by a walking corpse?”

Nine nodded, heelying forwards nonchalantly. 

This wasn’t the first time the Faceless Wanderer had interrupted their turbolifts; it was the thirty-fourth. Over the course of their time in the Sith Eternal, Aucune had redirected almost a fifth of the cult’s inbound cargo shipments to several asteroid belts scattered around the Unknown Regions; installed malware that wrecked the desktop interfaces of Sith computers, rendering them completely unusable; and worst of all, overrode the sound system to play soundbites of iCarly without context. Palpatine really hated that one. The cheesy dialogue had made him cringe more than enough times, and the laugh tracks had driven him - and the entirety of the order - to the point of near insanity.

“Thirty-four times! Thirty-four turbolift failures! Why can’t I take a lift in peace?” Palpatine sighed. “Anyways, enough of her. Kylo Ren...”

The faint figure of Kylo Ren flickered in the darkness.

“What is it?” the knight asked. “What have you done? Who are you?”

_**Do you need to know?** _

Ren, hidden to everyone but Nine, came closer.

“You never told me who you were,” he said. “You never said a single thing about yourself that day on the cliffs. When you turned me-”

_**I didn't.** _

Kylo Ren tensed up, frustrated. 

“But you did. You’re in the service of the Sith Eternal, aren’t you? That’s why you’re with Palpatine. You’re doing all of this to appease him.”

_**I don't serve him.** _

Kylo Ren watched Nine with suspicion. “You don’t serve him?” he muttered under his breath. “If you didn’t, he would have killed you by now.”

_**Some people are beyond that.** _

The Emperor stopped rambling on about how the knight could be the Sith Eternal’s most powerful weapon, and cocked his head to one side. _Does he know?_ Nine steeled themselves. _I need to be quick about this_. The burning Jedi Temple and the rain-ravaged island of Ahch-To lay behind him like a violent, visceral painting.

“Nine?”

“Apologies, Emperor,” Nine said, watching their words. “I put Ren into a trance to sedate him. He’s trying to break free from it, so I needed to keep him in there.” 

The Sith had lied; they had put the knight in a trance, but they had no intention of keeping him there. Keeping any subject under a trance for long enough would drive the subject mad, as the hallucinations they experienced drew themselves from the deepest corners of their own mind. There was no point in not letting the illusion run its course.

Palpatine chuckled. “Good, good. Keep him in there by any means necessary. We can’t have another incident like that one, can we?”

“No, we can’t.”

“As I was saying, Kylo Ren could be our most powerful weapon. The Knights of Ren raised him; Snoke trained him; and now, we will use him to his fullest extent. What happened on Jakku has only hastened this process and played to our strengths. Especially yours.”

“Yes,” Nine said through gritted teeth. “Mine.”

The Sith snapped their fingers.

Snoke began to protest. “You cannot-”

Almost immediately, the projection froze. The Supreme Leader’s once smooth movements were now stiff, staggered, and slowly grinding to a halt.

Ren glared at Nine. He wasn’t on Ahch-To anymore; he was standing within the throne room, albeit still invisible to everyone else. “The hologram room? Starkiller? How did you-”

“Silence, you filthy creature,” Palpatine growled. 

The knight staggered back, mildly insulted.

“Now where were we?”

“The…” Nine began. They glanced at Kylo. “Kylo Ren.”

“Ah, yes. The rabid cur himself.”

Nine felt Ren go from mildly insulted to downright outraged.

“Emperor, you need to understand that lycanthropy-”

“Is not a toy, but the razor-sharp edge of a blade at your neck. I’m well aware of your writings. But weapons win wars, and this is every single weapon we need.”

Palpatine gradually approached Nine. A slight, smug smirk was etched upon his face; he knew what he wanted to do with Kylo Ren, and he was willing to do whatever it took to gain control of that boy. The Sith frowned underneath their visor, thankful that it masked their emotions from others. _A terrifying, bloodthirsty beast_ , they thought. _No_. _A human_. Ren’s condition didn’t make him any less of a person than anyone else. Nine had learned that the hard way. 

The real question, though, was whether the knight would stay like that; whether he would forever be stuck in a body he couldn’t control, or whether he would become one with what he was.

“This is our chance,” Palpatine said. “This is our reason. This child, this creature, our killing machine. Our new enforcer will never be swayed by its weaknesses again, for it shall have none. It doesn’t love. It doesn’t care. It rules with fear, it dominates with terror. Gone are the days of the Light and the Jedi, peace and knowledge, serenity and harmony. With this weapon - this _ultimate_ weapon - we shall bring order through subordination, stability through strength, power through passion, victory through violence. With this - with it, its nature red in tooth and claw - the galaxy will be reborn.”

“If you’re certain, Emperor, then…” Nine said, dropping their voice to a low murmur. “Then it shall be done.”

Kylo Ren snarled in the distance. “Why?”

_**Ben Solo, I-** _

“You lied to me,” the invisible boy said. “You promised me power, passion, strength. You said the Dark Side would free me. But all you want to do - all you’ve ever wanted me to do - is put me in chains.”

Nine thought back to Ahch-To, to the time they stood on the rocky cliffs of one of the planet’s islands. _It was Palpatine’s doing_ , they told themselves. _The Emperor had ordered it_. _Kylo Ren himself had made the decision to turn, as everyone who had before him did_.

_**Look, you don’t know-** _

“I don’t know? I don’t? You serve him! You serve him, and now you want to make me his killing machine-”

_**I didn’t say that-** _

“You did. You said that since the day you pledged yourself to that beast.”

Kylo Ren raised his lightsaber. The Emperor seemed to be laughing in the background, but Nine paid him no attention.

“I’ll destroy you. The Sith. The Emperor. All of it. Every single monster will be dead.”

_**Strike me down in anger and you yourself will become one.** _

The knight swung his lightsaber. 

Nine scrunched their eyes tightly shut, trying to focus on the Force, trying to project a version of themselves within Ren’s trance-like state. Ren’s lightsaber clashed with the ones their projection wielded; both of them fought at the edge of reality.

“Nine?”

Nine’s eyes snapped open.

“Yes, Emperor?”

The Sith was dimly aware of their projection climbing up the walls of the throne room, hurling themself at Kylo Ren, and tackling him to the ground. The knight pulled on the Force, trying to manipulate the dreamscape that surrounded him.

“I want you to make sure that this creature never slips from our grasp. Convene with our delegates in Outpost Seventeen and bring them up to speed with what has happened thus far. I’ll make my way there once I’m done with Snoke.”

“I will, Emperor.”

“And one more thing…” the Emperor began. “Starkiller will fire today. A new Empire will rise from the ashes, borne from both the Sith and the First Order. The galaxy shall know our wrath.”

“They shall, Emperor.

“Long live the Empire,” Palpatine said, smirking again.

Nine’s voice wavered. “Long live the Empire.”

They turned and trudged back towards the turbolift. _Starkiller will fire today_. The Sith took a deep breath. _Starkiller_. An entire star system of people would be wiped off of the face of the galaxy. _It’s a third Death Star_. Nine entered the lift. As the doors slid shut, the faint figure of Kylo Ren, standing on the edge of the Millennium Falcon’s boarding ramp and overlooking an abyss devoid of light, faded into view; the Sith slowly pulled out their black saber, and pointed it at him.

_**This is what he’ll do.** _

Ren swung himself around to face them.

“And?” he questioned. “You serve him. This is what you want. This is what you’ve always wanted. Destruction.”

_**No, I-** _

“Don’t even start.”

He gazed down into the gaping void.

_**You’re like me, you know.** _

Ren shook his head. “No.”

_**No? Look around you, Ben Solo. Look around and see.** _

A multitude of voices spoke to Ren; a multitude of voices that didn’t come from them, but from someone or somewhere else. Kylo Ren, Ben Solo - whoever he was, it made no difference - looked around, dazed and confused. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was as if the Force itself was infiltrating the Sith’s illusion, manipulating it and cutting them off. Nine tried their best to regain control, only to see the knight lose his footing and stumble over the edge, dangling by his left hand. His grip wasn’t going to hold. 

_**Take my hand. Take it. Please.** _

Nine closed their eyes and reached out through the dreamscape, trying to reach out. He was holding his lightsaber in his right hand; if he didn’t want to fall, he would have to let go of it. 

“I can’t,” Ren said. “I can’t, not like this.”

His grip gave way.

_**Ben...** _

Kylo Ren let go; with it, the vision did too.

The turbolift chimed, and its doors slid open. Outpost Seventeen was still some distance away; Nine would have to take the planet’s mass transit system to get there. Palpatine had wanted the Sith Eternal’s presence on Starkiller Base to be relatively understated. Though the Steadfast hovered in the atmosphere above the outpost, the military base itself was hidden within a forest. _A forest_. That was one of the visions the Force had shown Ren - the one from the future. The Sith skated towards the closest thing that looked to a metro, one with a sign marked ‘TfL’.

It wasn’t too long before they found themselves behind a ticket office. A disastrously overworked steward sat behind it, with their feet up on the counter.

“Hello?” Nine said.

The steward scrambled to get themselves in a vaguely presentable position. They gulped down a shot of whatever beverage they had on their desk before replying, “Oh, hey there, welcome to TfL.”

“What’s TfL?”

“Every journey matters.”

“Are you going to charge me for a ticket? This is the mass transit system of a military base, not a public service-”

“Why yes, I’m going to overprice your ticket. We need to get our money somehow,” the steward replied. “That will be sixty-four credits… wait, what the kriff?”

Nine jumped the turnstiles and started skating at full speed.

“They have heelys now?”

“THEY DO INDEED HAVE HEELYS NOW!” Nine yelled. “YOU CAN GET THEM FROM STARGOS!”

The steward gulped down another shot.

Like everyone’s favourite MI6 spy, the Sith proceeded to slide down the bannisters before skating down the corridors.

A guard protested. “What do you think you’re doing- Ah! Not my bike!”

“Yes, _my_ bike!” Nine said, before stealing the guard’s bike and cycling away towards the platforms. They didn’t want to miss their turbotrain. 

A chime played loud and clear over the speaker system.

"Is your colleague eating your other colleague?"

Nine pushed on the brakes of the bicycle and slowed down as they approached the platform.

"Do they recoil at the sound of dog whistles and the sight of moonlight?"

The PA's voice sounded suspiciously like Palpatine. _Is he actually..._

"Do they really, really hate silver? Like, really?"

Yup, this was Palpatine.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but your colleague might be a werewolf!"

Nine rolled their eyes underneath their visor.

"Please speak to a senior member of the Empire Eternal High Command, assuming they're not already traumatised enough at it is, or text VADER at 34466."

 _You can text VADER now?_ Nine thought. _What is he going to do, make him howl from the other end of the galaxy?_

"See it, say it, sorted."

_Damn this, damn you, and damn the god-damned senate._

A train, closer to a hyperloop pod than something you'd find on a standard subway, arrived on the platform. The Sith dismounted from their bicycle and strapped themselves and their belongings in, gazing through its reinforced glass windows.

_AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!_

The doors slid shut.

Nervously, Nine looked around. There was no-one else inside the carriage; only them. The vehicle accelerated towards the outpost at full speed - the tunnel’s lights flashed and flickered, while the train’s own lights remained off. _Where did the screaming come from?_

Something suddenly slashed through the window, before pulling back and slashing again, and again, and again. The Sith recoiled back as much as they could while still being strapped into their seat, trying to avoid the worst of it. Shards of glass lay scattered around Nine’s seat as they glanced up, seeing two saturated brown eyes…

Eyes that belonged to Kylo Ren.

_Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic._

Nine froze on the spot, unsure of what to say. From the looks of it, Ren was just as terrified as well - terrified of something he had just done.

_He’s not real. He’s not really here. He’s not really here, and he can’t kill you._

They stared at a shard on the floor. Something was off, but what was it? Nine reached for the fragment and picked it up. _Glass doesn’t do this_ , they thought. _Glass is transparent_. _Glass reflects_.

_Glass doesn’t capture the image of a beast._

A jagged, angry brow of a werewolf was etched within the shard, as well as half of a striking, slit silver eye. Its fur was dark, almost black, and almost seemed to stick out. The Sith took a deep breath, realising what this was. It was an image of Ren himself, trapped in wolf form, unable to break free.

_**You’ve slaughtered yourself. Well done.** _

Kylo Ren eyed them through the gap in the window.

“I-”

_**Are you happy now?** _

Ren sighed.

_**Look, Ben. The more you deny-** _

“Deny what I am?” he said. “I never wanted to be this way. I never asked to be this way. And for what? I am not your killing machine. I belong to no one but myself.”

Nine saw him glance around his surroundings. This was new. He seemed to be in some kind of cavern, and one that they had never seen before. The Falcon, the broken glass, the cave; they were no longer in control, but the Force was - and that terrified them.

_**Ben Solo, you have to see reason. This isn't about Palpatine. I don’t care about him, I don’t give a damn about him-** _

“But you’re a Sith. And you’re in his service.”

_**Yes.** _

Nine couldn’t lie about that. 

Kylo Ren raised his weapon; the searing red of his blade pushed through the gap, illuminating the glass that remained within the window. The Sith’s reflexes kicked in, and they pulled away as far as they could.

“I’m sick of this!” he roared. “Of all of you! Luke, Leia, Han, Palpatine, and you. All of you want a piece of me, because you seem to think that I have some kind of destiny that you want to be a part of. Because I’m a Skywalker. Because I’m a Solo. Because I’m strong with the Force.”

_**Ben-** _

“I’m not Ben anymore.”

The blade moved closer, reaching for their neck.

Nine thought about unclasping their seatbelt, but then realised that doing so would send them hurtling to the back of the car with enough force to break their back. They froze again, crippled by fear.

_**Don't try it.** _

Before Ren could so much as thrust the blade towards them, something pushed him over. Nine shuffled over towards the gap in the window to see a wolf-like creature maul him. The beast loomed over the knight as tears of blood streaked down his face; the Sith watched in horror as it sunk its claws into his chest and tore out his heart.

_No, no, no!_

The beast hesitated, but didn’t stop. It rose up and howled, anguished, angry, and filled with rage, baring its bloodstained fangs to the full moon. 

Somewhere in the distance, the turbotrain stopped. A few maintenance droids boarded the car and told Nine to move, unstrapping their belongings and their bicycle from the rack and placing it on the platform. The Sith reluctantly unstrapped themselves from the seat and moved aside, glancing at the gap in the window one last time. 

Ben Solo stared at them with two brown eyes on the verge of tears as the werewolf of his own reflection gazed down upon him, smirking as it surveyed its prey. The Sith closed their eyes and turned away, even though they knew what would happen, even though they had seen this all before. Powerlessness - the same powerlessness as they had known before - paralysed them, petrified them, and stopped them in their tracks. They stepped onto the platform and took in a deep breath.

In one, swift, silent motion, it swallowed Ben’s heart whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Mitaka read a report from a raider, whispering its words as he went along.
> 
> “We cornered her, had her where we wanted her. Then, like it was nothing, she ignited her two lightsabers. Each twisted blade gleamed with its own weird, saturated colour: one red and one white. Then, before I could even register what was happening, she was gone. And I was left with no crew and no loot.”
> 
> “No loot?” Mitaka pondered.
> 
> _So she’s a thief as well as a saboteur._


	29. That Strange Friend of Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitaka does some research into the Faceless Wanderer.

Mitaka stared at his datapad. There was something regarding someone but that dated back to even before the Empire. So… in theory, this person should’ve been cripplingly old or dead by now, if they were at large during the beginnings of the Emperor’s rule over the galaxy. Which begged the question: if they were either old or dead, how did they manage to pull off a stunt as big as infiltrating the First Order’s security, creating a Faraday cage and then, with time to spare, vandalise the walls of Starkiller Base? And with _that_ message? 

“What am I fighting for, again?” Mitaka muttered as he stared at the fading artwork. 

They hadn’t left a single trace behind, as if all this had never happened. The dedication to their craft, if you could even categorise it as a craft, was almost admirable. Well, Mitaka should’ve expected that from a person who seemed to have been doing this for sixty-seven years. Whoever they were, they had perfected the art of invisibility. 

However, this mystery person must have left something behind! Mitaka approached the turbolift, which had now been put out of service, and scanned it once more. They must have made some mistake! No one could just ace a Faraday cage like that and leave nothing. Then Mitaka caught it, a digital fingerprint of sorts. He examined his findings, comparing it to the imperial records. It was her, the Faceless Wanderer. 

The Thorn in Vader’s Side, the Scoundrel of Scoundrels, the Wolf Maiden, the… Emperor’s Blunder? That was an odd title. Still, it seemed Mitaka had struck gold, he had found out who was behind the most traumatic turbolift experience he had ever endured, and he was proud of that. The lieutenant-turned-commander scoured for more information, filtering through every single archive the holonet had to offer. This person was no rebel, no, you couldn’t quite place them… well, anywhere. Mitaka also noted that once the New Republic spawned, sightings of the mysterious vigilante plummeted to almost zero, except for Jakku. 

Aha! Could this be where the Wanderer was from? 

Mitaka read a report from a raider, whispering its words as he went along.

“We cornered her, had her where we wanted her. Then, like it was nothing, she ignited her two lightsabers. Each twisted blade gleamed with its own weird, saturated colour: one red and one white. Then, before I could even register what was happening, she was gone. And I was left with no crew and no loot.”

“No loot?” Mitaka pondered. 

_So she’s a thief as well as a saboteur._

She didn’t seem to have any honourable quality, very uncharacteristic of both a Sith and a Jedi: there were tons of reports of imperial cargo being either diverted and lost to the far reaches of the galaxy, or returning to their base of operations empty-handed. In addition to this, she was once seen in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s company, Mitaka found this detail to be a little bizarre since the few descriptions he did have of the Wanderer, pointed her to being an ex-Sith of sorts. Hence, the red lightsaber.

However, other descriptions pointed to her being a Shadow Jedi. Hence the white lightsaber? A lost part of the Fallen Order. Her story was getting more and more convoluted and contradictory. Some said she was a Sith, others a Jedi, some had even gone as far to say that she was more than one person, a team of independent rebels, a squad of chaos-makers. Mitaka was fascinated, he looked through the drawings and bounty posters, many from Mandalore of course. 

Some depicted a woman wearing a Mandalorian helmet with striking wine red dreadlocks spilling from the top, enshrouded in a set of what looked like ‘Shade Robes’ with armour strapped awkwardly on it. Others, on the contrary, painted a portrait of a woman wearing ‘Sith Robes’ under her scuffed armour, holding a bowcaster in her hands. A bowcaster? Didn’t that raider report say she had lightsabers? Mitaka noted this down, it seemed the Wanderer, from other sources he had begun to read, despite possessing two lightsabers, rarely used them. Perhaps she was a disillusioned rogue? 

Maybe. 

She seemed to have an anger of sorts towards both sides. Mitaka found a peculiar holotape of Mace Windu addressing the Council after a sequence of street art on Coruscant had caused uproar. 

“Who is she? And what does she want?” the thunderous, yet slightly mechanical voice of the holotape’s Mace Windu cried. 

“Well, she seems to be questioning our Code.”

“How could she know about the Code, let alone question it, if she has never been part of the Order?”

Mitaka’s brow furrowed, this confirmed the theory that she may have had an affiliation with the Jedi but then he looked at another source. She was a Sith. She was definitely a Sith. And her master? None other than Darth Sidious himself. 

His eyes widened. She seemed to be quite formidable. 

However, he was soon reminded of the Wanderer’s humanity once he uncovered an article regarding an altercation with Darth Vader, the poor woman seemed to barely escape with her life. Yet, if she could live to see another day after facing the Lord of the Galactic Empire, Mitaka concluded that she was still someone to be wary of. So it brought up another question, why hadn’t anyone managed to catch her, already? How did she manage to slip away every time? 

Then Mitaka’s mind turned to the stranger. They said they knew her… perhaps they’d tell him more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “Why can’t I remember?” Kylo groaned. 
> 
> “Look, it’s all right. You’re safe, healing, and no one got severely hurt.”
> 
> “I BEG TO KRIFFING DIFFER!”
> 
> A pterodactyl screech of a voice came from right across the infirmary. 
> 
> “I HAVE NO EYES, REN! I HAVE NO EYES!”


	30. This Conversation Took A One-Eighty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux and Kylo have a conversation.

Hux awoke to the strong, stinging smell of alcohol, metal, and blood. He grimaced as he felt several shots of pain streak down across the middle of his face. Opening his eyes didn't help; the general couldn't see anything. Everything around him was black, but he could figure out from the whirring of droids and the murmuring of people that he was in some sort of infirmary. Sighing, he sat upright, pushing his back onto the headboard with his hands. The sheets beneath him felt clinical and papery, only confirming his suspicions.

"Hello?" Hux asked. "Is anyone there?"

The signature modulated voice of a stormtrooper came from his right. "Yeah. I- I mean, yes sir."

"Why is it so dark?"

"It's not, sir."

"It's not dark?"

"General Hux," the trooper began, "I don't really know how to say this, but-"

"Go on. Just say it."

The stormtrooper gulped. "You're blind, sir."

"WHAT?!" the general screeched. "I'M BLIND? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I'M BLIND?!"

"The medical droid is finishing up your implant. You'll have your vision back in an hour or two."

Hux sprung up and tried to feel around where his eyes once where, only to find the region numb, sensationless, and wrapped with soft dressing.

A robotic voice chimed in. "Your eyes were damaged beyond repair," it said. "We're just casting the metal. The implant will be with you shortly."

He shrieked and leapt out of the bed. In an instant, two pairs of stormtrooper hands were laid upon him.

"WHAT DO YOU FUCKING MEAN?! WHO FUCKING DID THIS TO ME?! WHO-"

Someone spluttered to his distant left. Hux slowly turned his head towards the sound. _Kylo Fucking Ren_. The general grit his teeth defeatedly and lay back onto his bed as a bout of exhaustion swept over him.

It was Kylo's turn to shoot up from his bed, gasping - no, panting - for air. Rey almost fell from her seat, scared senseless by his sudden resurrection.

"W-where am I?" he whimpered.

"One of Starkiller Base's many infirmaries," the scavenger girl replied, easing the young Solo back onto the mattress. "Uh, Ben? Try not to move. The repurposed KX-series medical droid spent ages trying to get that dressing on your burn. It won't be happy to find out all its efforts have gone to waste."

"Patricia? Where is it? Is it okay?"

"I DON'T WANT HIM NEAR ME EVER AGAIN!"

Muffled bawling came from somewhere just outside the durasteel doors. The dramatic voice of a crying KX-series droid grated against his ears, causing Kylo to grimace.

"What happened to it?" he sheepishly asked.

Rey pouted and glanced at the doors. "Do you really want to know?"

The knight opened his mouth to speak, only to feel something graze his tongue. There was something caught in between his teeth. Slightly embarrassed, he reluctantly fished out a thin strand of metal from between his lower right canine and premolar. He looked at it for a split second before averting his eyes.

"What the kriff was that?"

"Ben, you bit off its left hand, chewed off its right, and then almost tore out its primary speaker..."

"THAT BLASTED ANIMAL! HE ALMOST DECOMMISSIONED ME! ME! THE FIRST ORDER’S TOP LEADING MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!”

Kylo rolled his eyes. “Well, you are a KX Series droid-”

“I WILL NOT HAVE YOU QUESTION MY SKILLS! DID YOU SEE THE SHEER SPEED I DISINFECTED THAT WOUND WITH? I COULD HAVE DIED!”

The knight winced as he turned to Rey, who had four scratches on her left forearm.

"Did I do that?"

The scavenger girl fell silent.

"Oh, for kriff's sake! Answer me!"

"Y-yes."

He sighed and held his head. How did he manage to bite off a KX-Series Imperial Security droid’s hands off? How did he even get close enough to its vocal speaker too?

Kylo groaned. "Why can't I remember anything?"

"Look, it's alright Ben. You're safe, you're healing, and nobody was severely hurt."

"I BEG TO KRIFFING DIFFER!"

A pterodactyl screech of a voice came from right across the infirmary. 

“I HAVE NO EYES, REN! I HAVE NO EYES!”

Kylo Ren, for the first time in what seemed like forever, found himself deeply regretting his life choices. He didn't exactly have a choice in being a werewolf, but he sort of felt as though it wasn't his wolven half's fault that Hux had been blinded. They had been wrangling each other to the ground in the turbolift - he had remembed that much - and if they had been doing that, then he must have... _kriff_. 

He had to take full responsibility for his actions, and he wasn't going to like it one bit.

“YOU CAN’T BLAME IT ON YOUR STUPID CONDITION EITHER! YOU WERE VERY MUCH HUMAN WHEN YOU DECIDED TO IMPALE ME!”

“NO, I DIDN’T!”

“YES, YOU DID!”

“NO, I DIDN’T!”

“SHUT UP, REN! FN-2187 SAW IT!”

“I’m not FN-2187,” FN-2187 said. “I-I’m… FN-2178.”

“WHATEVER, HE SAW IT!”

“NO, HE DIDN’T!”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KYLO REN?”

“SHUT UP, HUX!”

“YOU’RE ACTING LIKE A CHILD!”

“I AM NOT A CHILD!”

“Wouldn’t the better term be ‘cub’?” Poe interjected.

Finn snickered. “He’s a little angry wolf cub!”

“He’s a goddamn feral mongrel for what it’s worth,” Hux muttered, before projecting his voice once more across the infirmary. “YOU’RE A FERAL MONGREL, KYLO REN!”

“YOU’RE A PIECE OF SHIT!”

“YOU EAT PEOPLE!”

“YOU DRINK LATTES! SO WHO REALLY IS THE BAD PERSON HERE!”

“OH SO YOU’RE GOING TO BE LIKE THAT! WELL, I’LL TELL YOU THIS: THIS WHOLE DARK SIDE THING YOU’VE GOT GOING, THE BLACK CLOTHES AND FLOPPY HAIR AND THE LOUD AS FUCK IMPERIAL MUSIC? GIVE YOURSELF FIVE YEARS AND YOU’LL GROW OUT OF IT!”

“IT’S NOT A PHASE!”

Rey turned back and forth, watching the tennis game of insults slowly descend into madness.

“I’M GONNA COME DOWN THERE AND RIP YOUR FACE OFF!”

“I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, LUNATIC!”

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!”

“DOG-BREATH!”

“CARROT-TOP!”

“FUR-BALL!”

“WANKER!”

Kylo and Hux paused for a moment and glared into each other's eyes. Well, Kylo glared into Hux's eyes. Hux just glared into an endless abyss of nothing.

The general went back to screeching. “YOU KNOW, AS PART OF YOUR 'TRAINING'… DOES SNOKE PLAY FETCH WITH YOU AS A WARMUP?”

“DID YOUR MOTHER EVER LOVE YOU?”

“DID _YOUR_ MOTHER EVER LOVE YOU?”

“AT LEAST I HAD SOMEWHAT OF A STABLE FATHER FIGURE!”

“YEAH, FOR LIKE THE LAST FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR CHILDHOOD, REN! AND EVEN THEN, I DON’T THINK OUR SUPREME LEADER EXACTLY COUNTS!”

“I’M AN ORPHAN!” Rey yelled, only to be met with silence. “What? I thought we were… oh you know what? Never mind.”

Hux seized the opportunity to make another insult. "HEY KYLO REN!"

“WHAT?” he barked.

“DO YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TAKE YOU OUT FOR WALKS EVERY MORNING? AWWW, ARE YOU CRANKY THAT YOU CAN’T GO ON WALKIES TODAY?”

“FUCK YOU!”

“YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HOWL AT THE MOON? ARE YOU WAITING FOR A REPLY?”

“LYCANTHROPY AND MOON PHASES HAVE NO CORRELATION! THAT’S JUST A MYTH!”

“OH REALLY? WELL, VADER SAW YOU LOOKING AT THAT SATELLITE FUNNY THE OTHER DAY!”

VADER chimed in. "Yup, he really was looking at that satellite funny the other day."

"Damn you," Ren growled.

“OH YEAH? AND WHEN VADER TESTED THE SIREN AGAIN, YOU HOWLED!”

Kylo felt the heat rise to his cheeks. It was true. A couple of days ago, the damned droid entity tested the Finalizer's sirens, and the entirety of the First Order was kept up all night by strange wailings coming from the knight's quarters. 

“NO I DIDN’T!”

VADER chimed again. "Yes you did! You howled like this: A-A-AWOOOOOOOOO!"

“Actually,” Patricia said behind the double doors, “it was more like this: AWOOOOOOO-A-A-WOOOOO!”

Rey cleared her throat. “Really? I swear wolves howled like this: RUUUUUUUU-WOOOOOO!”

“Desert jackals, Rey. That’s what a desert jackal’s caterwauling sounds like.” Poe exhaled through his nostrils.

“I always thought it would be more guttural. You know, like this: RAAAAARGH-WOOOOOO!” Finn reared his head back, giving his all into the impression. 

“Guys,” a deep, dark voice entered the fray once more. VADER had now fully descended upon the chat. “It was this: HOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO-RARGH-WOOOOOOO!”

“AWOOOOOOOO-A-A-WOOOOOO-” 

Kylo stopped himself halfway through, realising he had just howled at the top of his lungs.

“VADER, play it again!” Hux screeched.

VADER promptly played back the audio of Ren’s howl.

The knight, on instinct, reared his head back and howled like it was no tomorrow.

“HAH! YOU’RE HOWLING AT YOUR OWN HOWLS! GET PLAYED!”

“NO! YOU-AWOOOOOOOOO-HO-WOOOOO!”

Rey tried not to laugh as Kylo struggled to get the insult out, only to be interrupted by his own, intermittent howling. VADER chimed again, though no one seemed to notice the droid entity in the slightest.

"Kylo," Hux began. "Can I just say... YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO STICK 'EM IN ME!"

“STICK WHAT!”

“WHAT DO YOU THINK, REN? YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!”

Kylo Ren really did know what the general was talking about. "OH GOD! HUX!”

“DID YOU GET WHAT YOU NEEDED TO GET OUT WHILE YOU WERE AT IT! FUCKING SADISTIC ANIMAL!”

“IF YOU HADN’T USED THE HANDCUFFS-”

“THE HANDCUFFS?!" Hux screeched. "I DIDN’T MEAN TO, THEY WERE JUST THERE!”

“YOU REALLY COULD HAVE TRIED HARDER!"

“NO SHIT! YOU WERE TOO BIG!”

“THAT’S NOT MY PROBLEM!”

“YOU ALMOST CRUSHED ME!”

“I WAS ON TOP FOR LIKE TWO MINUTES!”

“I’M SURPRISED YOU LASTED FOR TWO MINUTES!”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!”

The rebel trio were genuinely surprised that the two bickering First Order commanders couldn’t hear the echoes of their own voices being played on all of Starkiller’s intercoms. Every single one of them. Without context. The entire base was eavesdropping on their conversation and taking it in fifty different ways.

“WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SPILL IT ON MY OVERCOAT?!” Hux yelled.

Ren snarled. "YOU DID THAT TO YOURSELF!"

“I DIDN’T ASK FOR IT!”

“WELL, WITH THAT ATTITUDE YOU NEED TO FIX… YOU WERE KINDA ASKING FOR IT TO HAPPEN!”

“HEY! YOU COULD HAVE PICKED A BETTER TIME… I MEAN, IN A TURBOLIFT? REALLY?”

“NOT MY FAULT YOU CAME WHEN YOU DID!”

“YOU JUST HAD TO BE ON TOP OF ME!”

"UGH!" Kylo Ren growled. "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LIKE THIS?"

“YOU SCARRED ME, REN! I’M A CHANGED MAN BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID TO ME IN THAT TURBOLIFT!”

“YOU PLAYED DIRTY TOO! CARRYING SILVER IN YOUR POCKET! I SHOULD CALL YOU OUT FOR TREASON! AND BITING ME?!”

“OOOOH! THERE’S THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK! IF YOU HADN’T TRIED TO CHOKE ME, I WOULDN’T HAVE BITTEN YOU!”

Both of them glared at each other.

“WELL, I’M SORRY!" Ren shouted. "YOU’RE NOW STUCK LIKE THIS! WOULD YOU HAVE WANTED ME TO FINISH YOU OFF?!”

"YES!"

"WHAT?"

"NO!"

The entire room fell silent.

"Well, this took a turn," Rey muttered to herself.

At that very moment, Phasma and Mitaka stumbled into the room. The data facilities were some distance away from the infirmary, and the both of them were glad for it; at least, until a very enlightening conversation - more like an incoherent screeching match - blasted itself over the loudspeakers, the only conversation to be heard in the data facilities.

“WHO CAME ON WHO?” Phasma yelled.

Both of them glared, or tried their best to glare, at her. "WHAT?" they yelled in unison.

Mitaka joined in. “YOU HEARD HER! WHAT THE KRIFF HAVE YOU TWO BEEN DOING IN THE TURBOLIFTS?!”

“Huh?” Kylo gulped. He turned to Hux, who was shrieking at the wall.

“What are you talking about, Captain Phasma?” the knight asked. He cocked his head to one side. 

“Never mind. I don’t want to hear anymore of your fondue-ings in the turbolifts.”

Kylo knew that was an innuendo of sorts, but he was still completely confused about why she, of all people, would be making one. Then a realisation hit him like a TIE fighter plummeting to the ground.

"VADER!"

VADER chimed like someone had just knocked over his cup of coffee. “What?”

“I’M GOING TO COME UP THERE AND RIP YOUR PROCESSOR OUT OF YOUR MOTHERBOARD!”

“That’s not possible, Commander Ren, I am a..." It paused, thought for a second, and chimed again. “Hey, Kylo? Kylo Ren? Emo boy?"

Kylo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, what?"

“AAAAAWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOO! AAAAAWWWWWOOOOO-HHHHHOOOO-HHHOOOO!”

“Why, you little- AAAAAWWWWWOOOOO!”

_CRASH!_

Everyone snapped back around to see that someone had kicked down the doors to the infirmary. Someone cloaked in Sith robes emerged, brandishing a blood-red lightsaber. _Palpatine._

“Has my hunting hound finally awoken?” the Emperor said theatrically. The room remained silent. He decided to switch gear. “I heard howling,” he began, “and was very, very concerned for the safety of Starkiller Base, stroke Death Star, stroke my sanity.” No one replied. _Damn the First Order!_ "So where’s the wolf?" he asked, matter-of-factly.

Nine, gliding up towards the Emperor on their heelys, bent down and tried to elbow his shoulder... only to miss and hit the side of his head.

“EH- Ow!” Palpatine said. “What the-”

“He’s over there.”

They pointed at a perfectly normal, very human, not changed in the slightest Kylo Ren, who rolled his eyes at the Emperor.

“Oh.” Palpatine sighed, retracted his lightsaber, and whispered over to his companion. “What can we do to make it quicker?”

“I don’t know. Moons?”

Mitaka sneered. “Uhh, actually, that’s a myth. According to your own archives, lycanthropy and the presence of moons are not related in the slightest. Only by coincidence.”

“Damn it… “ Palpatine muttered, “Well, there’s clearly nothing for me here. Continue your rude conversations. Oh and by the way, Starkiller is going to be firing shortly on the Hosnian system. I don’t suggest you attend… seeing as you’re in a rather compromising position at the moment.”

With a disappointed face and no werewolf, the Emperor trudged out of the infirmary. Nine stayed behind, pulling their bicycle into the room the second Palpatine left. They shrugged.

VADER chimed again.

“Hey, Kylo Ren?”

“What is it, VADER?”

“AAAAAWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOO! AAAAAWWWWWOOOOO-HHHHHOOOO-HHHHHOOOO!”

Rey began to uncontrollably laugh as Kylo, once again, reared his head back and howled at the speaker. 

“Damn it! VADER! This isn’t funny- AWOOOOOOOOOO!”

Mitaka was also snickering a little as his commander wailed at the top of his lungs like no tomorrow. 

“AWOOOO- STOP! RAAARGH-AWWWOOOOOOOOO!”

“I think we’ve found our new weapon against him,” Hux cackled. “Forget silver - VADER’s just struck gold!”

“VADER, crank up the volume,” Nine said, heelying around the room.

VADER cranked up the volume.

“NO- AWWWOOOOOO!” Kylo howled. “THIS ISN’T- AWWOOOOOOO!”

“This is funny, Kylo Ren. Just accept it. This is the happiest I’ve felt in years!” VADER bellowed, only to cry a little at the end. 

“I ACTUALLY CAN’T! MY THROAT- AWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “VADER?”
> 
> “Yes?” the droid entity replied, slyly.
> 
> “Keep doing this for another… say… twenty five minutes?”
> 
> “With pleasure, my dear.”
> 
> “Rey! No-AWWWOOOOOOO!”
> 
> Now it was time to get down to business.


	31. A Dire Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> VADER and Rey team up.

Rey couldn’t help but laugh as Ben held a hand over his mouth, trying not to howl at his own recorded wailings. This was beyond chaotic. She didn’t know whether his ego had a role in it but if it did, man, this just got even more entertaining. The scavenger girl, however, had a gut feeling that now would be an opportune time to start heading out with Finn and Poe, heck maybe even Ben. Seeing as Starkiller Base was about to fire, this was her only chance to hinder it and get out of there. She tested the waters, seeing if the knight was preoccupied enough to not eavesdrop on her conversation. 

Nothing so far. 

She leaned into the Force, trying to concentrate her mind with all her might. Rey had no clue how Ben could do this so effortlessly, or even Leia for that matter, this took a lot out of her. What was even more bothersome was that this only became an effort when she was trying to initiate the connection. Rey looked back to the first proper conversation she had with Ben Solo, perhaps the reason she could sift through his mind so easily was because he had let her? No, maybe he had opened up the connection and she just took advantage of that. She still wasn’t entirely sure where she stood with Han Solo’s son. He had let her live for this long… but he was loyal. Loyal to the First Order and his own agenda. Rey knew he would come around and return the light, but it wasn’t now. It definitely wasn’t now. As she sat before him, giggling as he comically tried to stifle himself, she could still sense the darkness mingling with his soul. 

She had to get out of here. Rey knew there was a safety in distance, perhaps this Force-bond they had would hold up even when she was on D’Qar? Maybe. She’d try anyways. At least while on D’Qar, she wouldn’t be at risk of being mauled. The scavenger girl looked at the scratches on her arm, they were deeply set. Bits of dried blood crusted the outside while the skin surrounding the sealing gashes was raised. She covered her arm with a quivering hand, not wanting to look at the wound any longer. It gave her doubt. Doubt about Ben. Doubt she didn’t need. Doubt that wasn’t true. Now, she’d reach out to Poe and Finn.

_**Psst!** _

The two masquerading stormtroopers looked her way. They were listening in, good.

_**Okay, guys, remember when we were in the Falcon? When we had to hide because we thought the First Order was going to search it?** _

They nodded.

_**Right, we’re going to do that again. I’ve seen the entryways for vents around here. Vents we can get into.** _

Finn seemed to cock his head to one side.

_**Rey, how are we going to slip away unnoticed? Let alone get into the vents?** _

_**Uh… good point. Hmm, I have an idea.** _

Rey’s face twisted into a mischievous grin as she looked up at the intercom. If this actually worked, she would be a genius.

After all, Ben had said something about running onto the main staging earlier, didn’t he? VADER had been testing sirens earlier as well. Oh, this was perfect!

“VADER?”

“Yes?” the droid entity replied slyly.

“Keep doing this for another… say… twenty five minutes?”

“With pleasure, my dear.”

“Rey! No-AWWWOOOOOOO!”

Now it was time to get down to business. 

Rey requested Nine to keep watch of Ben while she’d go to the loo. Nine, being seemingly tired and indifferent to it all underneath their visor, complied and let Rey go on her way. The scavenger girl opened the durasteel doors and exited the infirmary. 

Hopefully this worked. The last time someone did something similar to this was with the Jedi Council, the Faceless Wanderer, who was something of an aunt-like figure to her, had unleashed anarchy onto the streets of Coruscant below - and slipped away unnoticed. Fingers crossed, Rey’s attempt at this would go off without a hitch too. 

She waited outside for a few minutes, soon Finn and Poe emerged. Together, the stormtroopers feigning an arrest on her, marched down the main corridor. Rey scanned the walls, waiting to catch sight of something. Personnel ambled on past them, paying no heed. 

Then she saw it. 

Encased in red and black glass was the gleaming jewel that would set this plan into action.

“IN CASE OF A _DIRE_ SITUATION, BREAK THE GLASS.”

This was the wolf alarm. She had found it! Rey rubbed her hands together and bit her lip. She stopped in front of the button, her friends kept a lookout to see if anyone was catching onto them. Nope. The hallway was virtually empty, only a few witnesses. Rey tapped Poe on the shoulder, he nodded and they erupted into performance. 

The scavenger girl screamed and struggled as this _cruel_ stormtrooper tried to wrestle her to the floor! Then, just out of _pure accident_ , the girl slammed the trooper into the wall and onto the alarm.

It sounded immediately. 

“Great!” Rey clapped her hands together as the lights suddenly turned red, “Okay, you two go find an entrance! I’ll meet you there!”

The trio had a small, celebratory high five before they went their separate ways. The pilot and Finn made for the left, heading to the data facilities, whereas Rey took a right, sprinting to the closest exit: _the main staging._

Palpatine's voice rang true throughout the unit.

“Officers of the First Order! Servants of the Sith Eternal! Citizens of the Galaxy! Today is the end.”

She wove in and out of the hysterical crowd that had erupted from the new fear-filled anarchy. The lights were blaring, people were screaming and droids were getting crushed by stampedes of terrified stormtroopers. Soon, she saw the white, cold light of Starkiller’s outside expanse. The tinted windows revealed the shadowy figure of the Emperor giving a speech to the majority of the First Order. The alarm hadn't quite got to them yet... but she could fix that.

Rey listened out, checking to see if Ben was still howling. She could hear the faint murmurs of something that vaguely sounded like caterwauling. _Fantastic!_ The girl marched up to the glass doors of the balcony’s exit. 

A pair of stormtroopers stood outside.

“Young lady, you can’t go out. The Emperor is preparing to fire.”

Rey listened in to Palpatine's speech again. _The New Republic..._ she thought. _This could be my only chance to save it._

“The end of a government incapacitated by corruption. The end of an illegitimate regime that acquiesces to disorder. The end of the New Republic.” 

She took a deep breath, making sure she had just enough tears in her eyes. 

“BY THE MAKER! PLEASE HELP! IT’S OUT! IT’S OUT! DON’T YOU TWO BUCKETHEADS HEAR THE ALARM?!”

They looked at each other before turning their gaze back to Rey. The lights were now blaring down this end of the corridor. She could see, over the white armoured shoulders, that people were beginning to stare at the windows, wondering why there were strange lights blaring from Starkiller’s interior. 

“Weak, worthless, and wretched, it staggers onwards unable to support the citizenry it claims to serve, while at this very moment, its thousands of systems starve and wither and die, without aid, without care, without hope. The Republic luxuriates in blissful ignorance, drowning in its own decadence like the depraved, dishonest degenerates that formed it, unaware that these are its final moments."

Rey could almost feel Palpatine tense up, as if waiting for something.

"The Death Star is reborn. Starkiller Base, destroyer of worlds, slayer of star systems, shall crush all worlds that dare to defy us. The Empire is reborn. Your lives, labour, and loyal servitude to the First Order have kept its spirit alive in every sense of the word. The Sith are reborn. My faithful order shall strike true against dissenters and dissidents without mercy, hesitation, or remorse."

The half-blurred legions of stormtroopers outside stood to attention.

"Every world of every planet of every system shall be ours. Every single one of them will bow at our feet and cast their eyes up, pleading for but a single drop of our combined power. Strength, justice, and order will return to their rightful places within the galaxy."

A terrifying burst of evil seethed and surged through the Force itself.

"All will remember today as the last day of the last Republic...

...and all will remember today as the first day of the Empire Eternal!”

The Emperor's figure shook with ancient righteousness as he bellowed out his speech to the loyal subjects below him. 

One of the pair was about to protest but Rey was too quick. She shoved past the soldiers haphazardly and made for the main staging.

"LONG LIVE THE-"

Rey kicked down the panel doors and screamed as loud as she could. "WEREWOLF!"

"Werewolf?" someone murmured.

"Where wolf?" another asked.

"THERE WOLF!" Rey’s voice was now hoarse with hysteria, she pointed at the double doors. 

The crowd was silent. Only the faint, muffled wailing of some creature could be heard. 

As soon as the howling echoed throughout the open courtyard… Shrieking ensued, followed by a scattering, scrambling mass of folks running for their lives. Rey marvelled at the chaos before her, trying not to cackle like a maniac as the Emperor shrieked and bolted with his personal guard. 

She now stood on top of the stage, looking down onto what could only be described as pure, primal fear. People were stepping over their comrades, some were even getting violent while others piled into turbolifts. The scavenger girl dusted off her hands on her leggings and returned to Starkiller Base's infirmary.

The Force told her that Finn and Poe were in one of the data facilities, trying to stuff themselves into a vent shaft. 

The halls were empty now, dead silent. Only the blaring lights and howls were present, like the lamentations of a ghost. Rey’s heart thumped a little as a cold shiver ran up her spine. The path before her was lit in red and dismantled BB-Units were strewn across the floors, the place looked like a ruin now. 

Then she heard footsteps. 

Rhythmical, proud strides were coming from her right. 

_Shit!_

She could hear something that grovelled like low growling. Breathing followed, audible and angry. Rey sprung into a sprint. She skidded down the glossy floor, the steps becoming louder and louder as their owner drew nearer and nearer. 

_Oh no! Not now! Not now! Any time but now!_

Rey felt her throat burn as she panted. Her legs were on fire! The steps were quickening now. She was so close! Just one more turn and-

She threw herself over the threshold and punched the buttons. The doors slammed together. A bang followed. Then a muffled, but furious, curse. 

"REY!”

She leaned against the metal. A heavy sigh of relief escaped her lips. Finn and Poe gawked at her as she slowly slid down onto the floor, completely exhausted. Whatever adrenaline-filled buzz that had once filled her, was now long gone. The shine of sweat could be seen on her forehead. She jolted forwards as the doors shook. 

“KRIFFING DAMN YOU!”

She shrieked as the doors jerked in place. 

“Rey, come on!”

The scavenger scrambled up onto the ledge of the shaft, just as she was about to hoist herself up, another clang shook the trio. 

“THERE’S NOWHERE FOR YOU TO RUN! STARKILLER IS ON LOCKDOWN!”

Rey turned back, unsure. 

“Don’t listen to him! Get in the vent!” Finn pushed her into the crawlspace and got onto the ledge himself. 

The durasteel doors creaked. Then groaned. 

Poe gulped. 

Once Finn was safely in, he leapt onto the office chair and gently nudged Finn’s legs upwards as he crawled into the vent. The ex-stormtrooper hauled himself into the vent and then turned around. He stretched out his hand for Poe to take, who seemed to have his eyes fixed on the door. 

“That door’s going to give way.”

“Poe, quit staring and get up here!”

“How the kriff can a durasteel door give way...”

A hand broke through the metal.

“...to a fist.”

“Poe, come on!”

He broke from his trance and grabbed Finn’s hand. He wriggled into the vent and pulled the seal back up behind them. They all took a breather, watching from above to see Kylo Ren break through the durasteel like it was a wall of tin and survey the room. A deep thunder rumbled in his chest as he looked up to the shaft above the ceiling. Three Knights of Ren covered his flanks, dispersing throughout the study. Rey retreated into the vent’s dark as Ben caught her eye. 

He smirked a little and walked away, his warparty following closely behind him. 

“Whew! That was close!” Poe sighed and wiped the anxious sweat from his brow.

“I wouldn’t start celebrating now. We still gotta navigate this place - and let me tell you, this isn’t going to be easy.”

“Especially with him.”

They looked at Rey, who had become deathly pale.

"Guys?" she began.

"What?"

"He's got our scent."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “Rey? Why are you looking at me like that?”
> 
> “Look behind you.”
> 
> “What-”
> 
> “Look behind you!”
> 
> Finn turned around to see that his partner had vanished.
> 
> “Oh shit.”


	32. The Madness Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Finn, and Poe crawl through the vents.

“Any comments on my hips will not be appreciated,” Rey chuckled as they crawled through the metal maze. 

“Ah, your hips are fine, you’re built like a man!” a voice called from the back. 

“Thanks.” 

Rey was ninety percent sure they were back above the data facilities. At least they weren’t being pursued by Ben. Well, they were… ish. He couldn’t exactly get them out of the vents but he could still track them. She felt a little apprehensive, they were going to have to face him once they found the other side. 

“Finn! I thought you said you knew this place!” she sighed and looked down the grated shaft to see the familiar sight of the ransacked archive repository. 

“I did also say that this place is a maze!” 

He nudged her on, curiously peering down to find Captain Phasma, Lieutenant Mitaka and the figure, who seemed to call themself Nine, scouring the room. He was relieved to see that they hadn't noticed his silhouette eclipsing the shaft above them. However, he wasn’t going to wait for them to look up, he crawled on, catching up with Rey. She was shivering a little, quaking with subtle paranoia. He knew too. That knight was hot on their tails, whether they liked it or not. 

Rey could sense it. He was catching up to them. As they took another turn, she only felt that sense of dread grow within her, festering in her gut like a burning wound. She bit her lip and pressed on, her neck aching a little from being uncomfortably craned downwards due to the lack of space these vents presented. They only just had enough space to crawl. Rey felt like she barely had enough room to breathe. She took another turn. 

_We haven't gone down here before!_

The vent took a slight dip, sending them sliding down. Soon, they landed in somewhere new, a new part of the metal maze. Perhaps closer to the exit? 

“Guys! Do you think this’ll lead us to-”

The Force told her something was wrong. She stopped, sat down and swivelled around to face Finn. Okay? What’s the matter, then? Finn was here and Finn was fine. 

Then she looked behind Finn. 

They had lost Poe. 

“Rey? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Look behind you.”

“What-”

“Look behind you!”

Finn turned around to see that his partner had vanished.

“Oh shit.”

“Where’s Poe?!” The scavenger girl half-whispered, half-yelled. 

Finn shrugged. “I don’t know!” 

“He was right behind you!”

“I know!”

“You should have kept an eye out for him!”

The ex-stormtrooper turned around to face the empty tunnel behind them, praying Poe would appear round the corner. They waited a full two minutes for the pilot to materialise. He didn’t. Finn winced and turned to face a very miffed Rey. 

“We’ve lost Poe!”

“Don’t worry! I’m sure he’ll find us! We’ll all be together on the Falcon anyway…”

Rey was not assured in the slightest. 

“Poe’s in danger! He’s alone in the vents with Ben skulking around beneath us!” 

“Hey, the worst thing we can do is panic-”

A creak came from underneath them. Then a groan from above. The two looked up and around, hearing the metal surrounding them wail with some mechanical agony. She gulped. This didn’t sound good. The metal groaned only louder and seemingly from all sides. 

“What the kriff was that?” Finn muttered. 

“I don’t know… “

Soon the tunnel stopped wailing. However, neither felt safe to continue their quest. Despite now contemplating whether the innards of Starkiller were haunted, Rey didn’t distract herself from the pressing issue at hand: Poe was still missing. 

“Well, you were in front of him! Why didn't you keep an eye out?!” Rey huffed and folded her arms as best she could. 

Finn sighed heavily. “We’re in the vents of Starkiller Base with the whole crew trying to snuff us out! Why would I look- JESUS CHRIST!”

A fist burst forth from the metal underneath them! 

Finn shrieked and scrambled backwards. Rey tried to shuffle away too. 

“HE CAN PUNCH THROUGH METAL! REY, ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! ARE YOU SEEING THIS?!”

“FINN! LOOK OUT-”

Preoccupied with shoving Finn out of the way, Rey neglected to look out for herself. The hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her downwards. 

“REY!” 

Finn grabbed her and tried to kick the hand away. She was doing the same, wriggling and kicking with her left foot as the clawed grip over her right only tightened. Rey felt her hands losing their hold on Finn’s armour. She clung to him, desperately trying not to slip. Her arms were wrapped around Finn’s neck now, causing him to bend forwards, increasing her chances of falling. Finn was not letting go anytime soon, however. He heaved and pulled in his direction, soon Rey’s upper half was back in the vent. 

She knew he wasn’t going to let go. She also knew that it was better to have no shoes than be dead. So, Rey, with as much strength as she could, kicked off her boot. Whoever was below had clearly not expected a tumbling shoe to hit them in the face, and let go. Allowing her to crawl back up into the vent safely. 

“We’ve got to keep moving.”

“Yeah.”

They crawled as fast as they could, not taking any chances for another sporadic eruption to catch them off guard again. 

“I’m still worried about Poe.”

“Me too. But we can’t stop, I think it’s established that he’s on our case.”

“Y-yeah.”

Meanwhile, Poe was peacefully scrambling on. He came across a small cross section and decided to take a break. The pilot hummed a little, incoherent tune as he retrieved the transmitter from under his armour. 

“This is Poe Dameron! We’ve hindered Starkiller’s firing! Requesting evacuation and saying it’s clear for the squadrons to go!”

“Are the shields down?” Connix’s voice asked on the other side. 

_Crap_. He forgot about that.

Then the distant chime of VADER echoed down the left tunnel. 

“VADER speaking. Due to the alarm sounding, the shields will continue to be deactivated to make way for evacuation. Please stay indoors until your designated freighter has arrived.”

“The shields are down now.”

“Okay!” Connix exclaimed. “Well, Han Solo’s going to be in charge of picking you up! Make sure you get to him as soon as you can. Good luck.”

“Got it.”

He kept going, unsure when he’ll be seeing Finn and Rey again but hoping it would be sooner rather than later. He knew it wasn’t going to be for a while - Han Solo’s figure was waiting by the grate ahead of him, with no one but Chewbacca standing at his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> A Knight of Ren tentatively tapped Kylo on the shoulder. “Sir? You might want to turn around.” 
> 
> He sighed. "What-"
> 
> An FN stormtrooper shot a tranquilizer into his neck before he could even finish his sentence.
> 
> “Oh for fuck’s sssaaakkkeee," the young Solo groaned.
> 
> The world around him spun and faded to black.
> 
> “We got him! It’s all clear! Wolf’s down! I repeat! Wolf’s down!”


	33. Geez Louise!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo gets tranquillised.

Kylo Ren felt like he was on the verge of insanity. The lights burned his sensitive eyes and the blaring sirens would make even a deaf person want to cry. What made things worse was that he just had a shoe to the face. This may as well have been the most gruelling day of his life. 

A Knight of Ren tentatively tapped him on the shoulder.

“Sir? You might want to turn around.”

“What?”

An FN stormtrooper shot a tranquilizer into Kylo’s neck before he could even register another a thought.

“Oh for fuck’s sssaaakkkeee," the young Solo groaned.

The world around him spun and faded to black.

“We got him! It’s all clear! Wolf’s down! I repeat! Wolf’s down!” 

The Knight of Ren watched the small squad of stormtroopers drag the sedated man out of the room and into the corridor. He was beyond confused and almost scared at this point. _What the actual kriff was going on?_

“Uhhh... stormtroopers? What are you doing with-”

“We’ve been trained in dealing with these situations, I suggest you stand aside and let us handle this. We don’t want any complications.” One of the bucketheads triumphantly shooed the Knight away. 

“But… he’s not-”

“Well, not now. You can’t be too careful - werewolves are fickle creatures.”

“FN-3165,” the knight said, reading the stormtrooper’s identification number off a small plate near their neck, “how long have you actually been on the training course for?”

“Two days.”

“Right,” the knight grumbled. _So this explains things._

“Look, we’ve just been given orders to sedate and restrain him. They didn’t specify which form they preferred to have him brought back in.”

“Well, I thought that maybe you’d make an exception for...” The knight paused and gave up. Kylo Ren turning into a werewolf was the most chaotic thing that had happened in the history of the galaxy, and they knew it. “You know what? Never mind. Do what you've got to do.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

The Knight of Ren just stared at the trooper blankly as they awkwardly cuffed their unconscious leader’s legs and arms to a pole before carrying him out. The squadron looked more like a cult escorting a sacrifice rather than saving their superior. Still completely unsure of what had just happened, the knight waved off Kylo Ren as he was taken away, before making his own way out of the corridor.

Twenty minutes later, Kylo woke up to find he was hanging upside down and a few feet off the ground, surrounded by a group of stormtroopers who were bickering like there was no tomorrow. _You know what?_ he thought. _If I'm stuck here like this, maybe there won't be a tomorrow._ He felt a little woozy - the sedatives still had a hold over him. The strobe lights triggered by the wolf alarm were still flashing too, causing him to squint a little as he tried to get his bearings. 

"You're awake, sir!" a stormtrooper exclaimed. Their voice was deafening in Kylo's ears, but as much as he wanted to make this trooper stop, all he could do was grunt deliriously.

Another stormtrooper's transmitter rang, putting the knight's ears through even more agony.

“General Parnadee! Ma’am, protocol suggests we put Commander Ren under supervision until the alarm is called off.”

The hologram of Paranadee shook her head.

“If you want me to be in a room with Kylo Ren for more than two minutes, you’re going to have to let me acquire a harpoon and six shots of whisky.”

“We have neither of those things.”

“Then I won’t supervise him. Put him with Hux.”

“With General Hux? But he’s-”

“That’s an order, FN-corps.”

A few moments later, Hux opened the door...

...only to scream at the top of his lungs.

“General Hux," the first trooper said. "I see you have your visual aids. May we leave Commander Ren in your custody?”

"I-"

Before the poor general could protest, a barely conscious Kylo was uncuffed and chucked onto his lap. Hux just about managed to catch Ren’s helmet as a soldier threw it his way. 

"We wish you the best of luck, sir!”

With that, the stormtroopers sealed the door, leaving Hux trapped in a supply closet with the slowly sobering-up wreck of a warlord that was Kylo Ren. The general sighed, wondering how best to approach this situation.

“Uhhh... Ren? Are you-”

Suddenly, Kylo shot up with strange, dilated eyes. 

“I can smell the universe.”

“Oh my God, you’re high as a kite… great. What the hell did they give you?”

“My head feels funny.”

“I’m sure it does," Hux said. "Now, don’t try and do anything rash.”

The general tried to ease him back down onto the floor without also having his Wayfarers being snatched. 

Kylo mumbled something as the general tried to get him to sit upright. 

“Ren, could you stop fidgeting!”

“Why did they sedate mmmEEEeee?” he slurredly asked, “Are they blind? Look, I’m Kylo Ren, I’m humannnNNNnnn, I’m walking on two legssshhh!”

He stood up and hit his head against the low ceiling. Hux tried his best not to snicker. 

“Well, actually werewolves are bipedal as well as quadrupedal, so-”

“I’m a werewolf.”

“Proving my point. Can you sit down?”

“I want to walk, though.”

“But you can’t.”

“WHY?” he yelled.

“Ssshhh! Keep your voice down!” 

“SssHHH!” Kylo awkwardly placed a finger over his lips as Hux once again tried to make him sit down. 

“Stay there.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I want to walk!”

“We’re in a lockdown! And you’ve just gotten over being sedated!”

“I WANT TO WALK!”

Hux sighed. “Fine.”

Kylo got up and looked around the supply closet. 

“There’s no space for me to walk.”

“Exactly, so sit down!”

“Was thissss your idea… to pppuuuttt mmmeee in the supPplYyy closettt?”

“No.”

“Oh.” A silence followed, but not for long. “I’M BORED!”

“When are the drugs going to wear off?”

“Hugggssszzzshhh, I want to eat.”

Okay, now the general was slightly nervous.

“We’re in a supply closet.”

“I’m hungryyyy.”

Kylo looked at Hux; his fanged teeth were on slight display as he whined. 

“Well, Ren, you’re not eating me… that’s for fucking sure.”

“UUUuuuuggghhh.”

“I have mints.”

“Gimme.”

“Only if you promise to stay put.”

“Fine.”

“Good.” 

He anxiously handed the knight a small tin box. Kylo sniffed the tin, much to the general’s awkward anxiety, and then proceeded to tip the entire contents of the aforementioned box into his mouth. 

“Wait! Ren! Not all of it!”

He yelped and panted. “It’s spicy!”

“Yeah, no shit!”

“My mouth feels numb.”

“Oh for kriff’s sake.”

“Awwww… the tin’s empty.”

“You ate the whole thing.”

“Do you have more?”

“No- HEY! REN!”

Kylo lunged at Hux and ravaged his overcoat. The poor general shrieked as his hardly sober colleague sniffed about him and searched every single pocket he could find. Only to then lie on Hux’s lap, defeated and disappointed at the outcome of this rather fruitless mission. 

“I’m sad.”

“Uh-huh,” Hux grumbled, trying to mask the fact that he was both frozen on the spot and genuinely terrified.

“You smell nice.”

“Thanks?”

“Why do you smell like berries?”

“Because I use a berry-flavoured conditioner?”

“What brand?”

“Are you seriously asking me what product I use in my hair?”

His only reply was a hiccup. 

“Ren, how long are you going to be like this?”

“BlEeeuuuRrrggghhh…“

Then VADER chimed in.

“How are my two favourite lovebirds?”

“Just… no.”

“To answer your question regarding Kylo Ren’s state, give him another thirty minutes to sober up.”

“What did they do to him?”

“I believe they mixed wolfsbane into the horse tranquilizer they previously used to administer to Ren. I see the effects of the substance have worked.”

“It’s supposed to make him like this?”

“MmmmFffffffmmm… Hux, I’m still hungry!”

“Yes.” 

“Is he going to-”

“No, don’t worry. According to Mitaka’s research, wolfsbane should in fact hinder any lycanthropic symptoms.”

“I don’t think it’s hindering much.” The general muttered, trying to manage Kylo climbing on top of him like some hyperactive cub.

“VADERRRrrrr?”

“Yes, Commander Ren?”

“Wh- hic- when is this going to be overrrrrr?”

“Another nine hours.”

“NINE HOURS?!” Hux pushed Ren down onto the floor. 

“Ow.”

“NINE HOURS, VADER?! I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS FOR NINE MORE HOURS!”

“Hux! That hurts my face!”

“Shut up!” Hux pinned the writhing knight onto the ground, “VADER, I actually can’t handle him for another nine hours.”

“Well, no one else is going to take him.”

“Why me?! I’m the least capable! I mean, I’m blind!”

“You have a visual implant.”

“Doesn’t detract from the fact that I am at least ten times more vulnerable than the others!” he screeched, while also trying to stop Kylo from reaching his Wayfarers once more. 

“Look at me, VADER! I’m barely holding him down!”

“You’re doing great from here!”

“You try and wrangle an almost seven foot tall guy to the ground and then tell me whether this is all right or not!”

“Give… me!”

“No! Stop trying to grab my face! Ren!”

“Hux!” Kylo yelled back before reaching for his face again.

“I’ll give you another mint if you stop fidgeting.”

“Liar! You don’t have anymore!”

“I do!” Hux pulled out a packet of chewing gum from his trouser pocket, “But you can’t swallow this.”

He handed a stick to Kylo, who pushed his hand away.

“That’s not a mint!”

“It’s minty!”

“It’s not chewy!”

“What the fuck are you on about?! THIS IS _CHEWING_ GUM!”

“General Hux,” VADER interrupted, “I think what he needs is something to gnaw on.”

“Where the actual kriff are you going with this?”

“You know how a dog chews on a bone… “

“Oh, just kill me now.”

“It’ll shut him up.”

“Is there anything here that he can…“

“To your left, there ought to be a broom handle or training staff.”

Hux sighed and got up. He scoured through the piles of junk that surrounded them, being careful not to get dust caught in his nose.

“Ren!”

“What?”

“Here!”

He chucked the wolven boy a broom handle. Immediately, he began gnawing on it like a young dog would do. 

“That is… disgusting.” Hux mumbled as he sat by him, watching Kylo tear through the plastic like it was nothing. 

“Why are you like this?” the general tried his best not to show his revoltedness at the sight of what was supposed to be his superior chew through the handle like a plastic dog toy. 

“Hey, at least he’s quiet now.” VADER interjected, “Anyways, he probably needs this. Here’s a fun fact: a werewolf’s teeth are constantly growing.”

“Yeah, but now I have to see this.”

“Better him ripping that apart than you.”

Hux felt a shiver run up his spine as he watched Kylo crack open the plastic shell and dent the metal. 

“Fair enough, VADER. Fair enough.”

A twenty minute silence soon swept in. Kylo Ren had fallen asleep, while Hux stared off into the distance, relieved that he had managed to survive in the young Solo’s company.

“Oop!” The droid entity chimed, “It appears the Resistance have infiltrated Starkiller.”

“WHAT?!”

“HHHEEEUUUGGGHHH?!” Kylo exclaimed. He shot up, visibly confused, before spitting out a chunk of plastic. “What the kriff was that doing in my mouth?”

“Glad to see you’re back with us, Kylo Ren.”

“Anyways, VADER, what did you say?”

“The Resistance has infiltrated the base.”

“WHAT?!”

“X-wings are flying above us as we speak.”

“How did I not- why hasn’t anyone-”

“Ren, you were… and still slightly are judging by your eyes, intoxicated with sedatives.”

“Those fucking stormtroopers.”

“Don’t blame them, they were just following protocol.”

“I CLEARLY HAVEN’T CHANGED! DO I LOOK REMOTELY WOLVEN TO YOU?!”

“I’m supposed to say ‘no’, right?”

“UUUUUUUUGGGHHH!” he groaned. 

“Look, we can’t go anywhere now since I have to watch you- ”

Kylo didn’t pay any attention. He got up, snatched his helmet, marched to the sealed door, ripped it open like it was nothing and then stormed down the corridor. 

“Sir,” a modulated stormtrooper voice could be heard in the distance, “Sir- AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

“I’m not going after him.”

“No one’s asking you, Hux.” VADER sighed wearily. "Besides, someone's on their way to see you soon..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “Easy, easy,” she muttered, seemingly addressing simultaneously him, her kid and herself, “It’s okay.”
> 
> “It isn’t!” he roared. 
> 
> “You’re fine.”
> 
> “I’m not!” he screeched, his voice cracking halfway through. 
> 
> “Take a few breaths. Count to ten, human again.”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “Count to ten, human again.”


	34. Musings On Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo realises something about Rey...

Kylo sniffed the air, trying to get a sense of where she was. The bridge? Maintenance levels?

He took in another breath of air. She was in the maintenance levels of Starkiller’s steel stomach. So were the rest of them. And his dad. A small growl escaped his lips, he continued down the hallway. After what he did to that stormtrooper three minutes ago, no other person had tried to stop him. His heart was still racing, thumping in his chest; he was just inches away from clamping his jaws around that poor soldier’s neck. They were both lucky he had his mask on. Lucky indeed. He took a turn, hoping to get a turbolift if one was available.

It seemed his fortune was taking a turn, there was but a single turbolift open. He crept into the machine, finding some bliss in escaping the blaring lights. It reminded him of his newfound photosensitivity 

_Maybe I should get something for that._

He awkwardly stood in the lift, finding some social anxiety in his own company. Lack of confidence, it ran deep within him, dancing under his skin and mingling with his blood. He felt a shivering sensation sweep through him. He was going to face Han Solo soon. Face his past. He muttered a curse as the lights passed him, he was getting closer and closer. Nearer and nearer.

Suspension nibbled at him. It was almost as if he could feel his nervousness lick his fingers, coating them in a spit of shame and guilt with a tongue of doubt. Doubt he didn’t need. Doubt that wasn’t true.

Speaking of the past, the lift smelt awfully familiar. Kylo sniffed around, taking a few steps this way and that, trying to find the strongest point of the scent. It was sweet, a little comforting. Drowsy. Soothing. He took in the smell, almost finding it intoxicating. Where had he smelt it before?

It smelt like Rey but it wasn’t. No. There was age to it. He stood in the corner of the lift, trying to sift through his mind, almost desperate to place the smell.

Elphrona. That’s where he knew that scent from! That was ages ago, almost like another lifetime. Luke was piloting a starship, having San Tekka accompany him at the front. That left him, when he was Ben Solo, to recline in the seat at the back, observing the conversation ahead of him.

“You’re sure about this, Lor?” Skywalker asked his companion.

“As sure as I can be. Our contact told me a great deal about the location.”

San Tekka turned to face the strange lady sitting by Ben, her concealed gaze staring at the floor as she absentmindedly twiddled her thumbs. Ben wasn’t sure who he was, he had seen her in San Tekka’s company a few times as well as the baby that was dozing off in her fur-lined sling. It must have been hers, the woman’s, because whenever he shifted a little, to peer over her shoulder and get a better look at the tiny thing, the armoured woman would subtly establish herself, subtly conceal the baby from view… Much to Ben’s frustration, seeing as the baby appeared to be the one interesting thing on this ship. The tiny thing was awfully quiet, barely making a sound, only occasionally squeaking for her mother’s attention.

“Copaani gaan?” Lor cocked his head to one side, awaiting the woman’s reply, “Aucune?”

“I’m fine,” she said blankly, lifting her helmeted head up to meet his eyes.

Luke suddenly turned around. “You can speak Basic?”

“Of course I do! I’m a traveller, mir'osik, what would I do without it!” she laughed.

“Well, I didn’t know! You were being so quiet and only replied when Lor spoke to you in Mando’a!” The old Jedi Knight raised his arms defensively.

Ben snickered a little, it wasn’t everyday Luke would be so taken aback.

“Pfft!” she huffed, “Jedi… Mirsh'kyramud!”

“Excuse me?” Skywalker fully turned himself around.

“Aucune!” San Tekka raised a hand in the air, “Don’t insult him like that. He’s helping us.”

The woman flicked a red dreadlock away from her shoulder and fully reclined into her seat, shooting Ben a small glance as he did his best to repress a smile. She chuckled. As she moved away, he got a better look at the kid. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to see the baby, snugly tucked under pelts, but the way the Mandolorian would get protective, try to hide her, almost pretending she wasn’t there sometimes: it piqued his curiosity.

The baby was adorable to say the least, hugging herself as she rested her head on her mother’s chestplate. There was something a little wild about the kid, with a head of curly brown hair and strange markings painted on her face.

 _That must have been Mandolorian tradition or something_ , Ben thought to himself.

“As I was saying, Lor,” Luke straightened himself out, “Are you sure about this?”

“I think after all my wanderings, I would be able to recognise the description of a Jedi Outpost when I hear it, Luke.”

“All right! I’m not questioning your expertise. I just didn’t realise the Jedi ever had an official presence so far from the core.”

_**Is all well, my friend?** _

Snoke’s voice entered Ben’s mind once more. He grimaced slightly, finding his forbidden friend’s entrance to be at an inopportune moment. Especially when he could sense the lady next to him eavesdropping on their conversation.

Effortlessly eavesdropping, mind you.

_**I sense disquiet in you.** _

_I’m fine, Snoke. Just off on yet another mission with Master Skywalker to find Jedi artefacts. Lor San Tekka’s here too, along with his friend. He thinks he’s found something on the edge of the outer rim. Almost to the unknown regions. Ben narrated as he watched the two men at the front continue their discussion._

“It’s probably High Republic era. It was a time of greatly expanded Jedi activity throughout the galaxy.”

Lor San Tekka was a repository of Jedi knowledge, seemingly more so than Luke. The traveler had a devotion of sorts to the order, though, Ben could sense he also knew of the Sith. Luke never spoke about them. Never spoke about anything but the Jedi. And most of all, about how Ben’s destiny lay with it. The boy sighed a little. He shot a glance at Aucune, she wasn’t like them. She was different.

He couldn’t quite place her difference but… he knew she held some sort of opposition to Luke. Be it hostile opposition or calm indifference, he didn’t know. He just knew she was somehow the polar opposite to his master.

_It’s some planet called Elphrona. All this way to find some old junk Master Luke will lock away in his Temple and never use._

_**The Jedi have always been good at that.**_ Snoke chuckled. _**They consider themselves masters of the Force, in every sense.** _

_At least he could have let me fly the ship. Would give me something to do. Ben shifted in his seat, He’s an amazing teacher, I’ve learned so much from him… but he never seems to want me to use any of it._

_**Your master thinks of you as a child. Someday he will realise your true capabilities.** _

Luke’s voice broke through Ben’s reverie, snapping the kid out of his thoughts.

“We’re just about there, Ben.” The ship jolted a little as it began its landing sequence, “If this place is everything Lor San Tekka believes, we could find some insights into the old Jedi.”

Ben pouted a little and leaned back in his seat, seemingly unsure if he'll actually enjoy this excursion. The journey was painstakingly boring enough.

“Maybe some interesting weapons too,” Luke smiled a little as Ben perked up, “I know you like that sort of thing.”

“Entirely possible kyber crystals have powered many tools over generations, not just sabers.” San Tekka interjected.

“Mhm,” Aucune hummed, “Might even find some texts as well that your young student here could study."

Ben rolled his eyes.

Luke laughed. “I’m sure we will. I’m glad you came along, Ben.”

The young Solo stared at him.

“Yes, Master Skywalker,” he almost automatically replied, “So am I.”

Both San Tekka and Luke gave him warm grins before turning back to man the ship. Ben turned to face Aucune, who tilted her head as if giving him a tender smile. She patted him on the back as they began to file out. Funnily enough, the young Solo was sort of surprised that Aucune had left the ship to begin with, taking the baby with her. He supposed that maybe she took the baby everywhere. Didn’t the little thing have a dad? He could have sworn Aucune was a bounty hunter or something, from what he’d overheard anyway.

The sight before them was impressive. Almost dream-like. Two saber-wielding Jedi guarded the front door, carved into the cliff. The stone guardians were half-hidden under their sandstone hoods, proudly standing upright like frozen, preserved giants. Ben was dumbfounded.

“Well,” Luke let out a breathy laugh, “This is impressive.”

“I agree,” San Tekka replied, “Well preserved and the entrance looks intact. This could be quite a find.”

Luke placed a hand on Ben’s back, causing him to jump out of his awe-inflicted trance.

“Let’s go in, see what’s in there. Be ready for anything. Just because it’s sealed up, doesn’t seem there’s nothing dangerous inside.”

“Who knows,” Aucune bent down to meet Ben’s slightly nervous eyes, “The place could be teaming with undead.”

The boy whimpered.

“Aucune!” San Tekka waved her off, “Don’t scare him with your Mandolorian stories. This isn’t a crypt, it’s an outpost.”

"Best keep an eye out,” Aucune whispered to the boy, “Who knows? You might even witness a draugr!”

“W-What?!”

“Aucune!” Lor called, “Come on and keep watch.”

“Coming,” she sighed, leaving Ben with a mixed feeling of dread and excitement.

The old, stone doors swung open to reveal a repository of artefacts upon artefacts, almost spilling off shelves and lining the grey walls. The whole group was awestruck, marveling at the goldmine they had just stumbled into. Even Aucune’s little one had woken up, ogling everything that passed her with big brown eyes.

“This isn’t an outpost. It’s a treasure trove!” Luke muttered.

“The Jedi of the time must have used it as a storage site and been unable to return to gather these items. This is truly fortunate.” San Tekka wandered on, staring at the gifts from the past.

“This might even be better than Jocasta Nu’s cache.” Luke mumbled as he stared at a pedestalled holocron, “Pretty amazing, eh? Think of everything we can learn!”

“It’s wonderful…” Ben replied, examining a large rifle.

Suddenly, he turned around. Something didn’t feel quite right.

“Wait.” Ben looked up, “Do you sense that?”

“Cold.” Uncle and nephew said in unison.

“Well,” an icy, gravelly voice broke through the bitter silence, “Hello there.”

Dark shadows of strange men lined the walls, perching on pillars and peaking between cracks like death omens, but one stood out, not quite fitting with the rest of the group. A man, seemingly the leader of the gang, scarred and rugged, stood proudly before them. His arms were outstretched in a sinister, welcoming manner and his masked face beckoned for all to look at him.

“Everything here is ours. We’re going to take it. But how we take it is up to you,” he chuckled darkly, “Your call, friends.”

“You’re wrong,” Luke raised an eyebrow at the cocky cretin, “So, so, wrong.”

The mysterious intruder took a step back as Luke continued.

“This is a Jedi outpost. Everything in it belongs to the Jedi Order, which at the moment means me. I am the last Jedi.”

The old Jedi looked at each and every dark warrior sternly, “Even if I had no claim to these, I wouldn’t let you take them. I can sense the dark in all of you. You will leave here with nothing but your lives.”

“All right.” the leader gave a faux-reluctant sigh, “Let’s show this old fool what’s what and get what we came here for.”

Ben stepped forward defensively, glaring at the shadowy mercenary group.

“This is Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He is a legend!”

“Yeah?” the figure laughed, “Well, I’m Ren. And these are the Knights of Ren.”

Ben heard a small cry come from the baby and then a hushing coo from either Lor San Tekka or Aucune.

Ren ignited his lightsaber, its bleeding red edge was almost blinding. He surveyed the room, sizing up each opponent that stood before him, you could feel the grin under his mask.

A Knight tapped him on the shoulder.

“Boss,” they whispered, “We should just do the job and go. We’re on a schedule.”

Ren waved them off, muttering some affirmations and instructions. The rest of the Knights began to descend from their places between the pillars, slowly swarming around the small group.

“You should leave,” Luke ignited his own saber and readied it, “We don’t want any trouble.”

Ren sighed, “Yeah, yeah. I know. But first.”

The scarred warrior sheathed his red blade and gently took off his blank helmet, the glowing red markings died down as he held it in the crook of his elbow. A shock of almost white hair was revealed, along with greying blue eyes.

“Hey kid,” he looked at Ben, “You sure this is the life for you?”

He wasn’t sure, he stared at Ren, feeling a set of hands on his shoulders. Aucune placed herself behind him, glaring at Ren through her mask.

He held out a gloved hand with a strange signet branded into a ring. A ring with an odd spike on its inner side. Suddenly, Ben, without really thinking, took a step towards him. A pull, a beckoning, something in the Force itself, drew him to it.

“Ben.” Luke stopped the boy in his tracks.

“Kid,” Ren took on a little softer tone, hand still outstretched, “You’re strong. Strong in ways you can’t imagine. You have the Shadow. But above all, you have the Wolf-”

“That’s enough.” Lor San Tekka suddenly interrupted, Ben could’ve sworn his voice sounded a little different, distorted.

“Come on,” Ren took a step forward, so did Ben, “Take my hand.”

“What are you-” Luke tried to intervene.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Let’s be civil about this. Why don’t we just shake hands and go our separate ways? Kid? Come on, be a good boy and shake my hand.”

“Ren!” one of the Knights barged forward, “This is going on for too long!”

He charged at Ben and scooped him up into his arms. The boy screamed and struggled as a gauntleted hand covered his mouth. Something sharp spiked his neck. He writhed and kicked his legs about. The Knight’s grip tightened. Ben could hear Luke’s cries as well as the clashing of sabers.

“Dammit!” Ren screeched over the commotion, “The proto-poison is a back-up!”

“But, sir-”

“Idiot!” Ren yelled as he dodged the swipe of Luke’s green blade, “We’re meant to give him that after infection!”

“He’ll still shift, though!” another Knight spoke up, “He’ll become the Wolf, right?”

“Fucking idiots!” their leader spat as he just about managed to fend Luke off.

Ben could just about see the sparring silhouettes through the gap between the Knight’s arms. That’s when he saw a window. He adjusted himself and then bit down on the man’s forearm. He screeched and let Ben go to roll onto the floor. The boy scrambled onto his feet to see the Knight cradle his forearm, blood gushing out.

_Damn. I didn’t mean to bite that hard._

“Aucune!” San Tekka’s voice broke through the fray, “Take the kids! Get them as far away from Ren as you can!”

Soon enough, Ben was scooped up again in a pair of arms and taken away.

“W-Wait!” he cried, both clinging onto and struggling in her arms.

She stopped and looked around, gently tightening her grip on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the baby scrunch her eyes shut, burying her face in the crook of the steely warrior’s neck. Aucune managed to find a decent hiding spot, in the shadow of a pillar. The fighting sounded distant enough. She took a seat in the darkness, keeping Ben’s head low.

Panic ran through Ben, he felt a surge of fear rise up within him. He got onto his feet, ready to sprint back into the fight. Only for a pair of hands to grab him by the waist and bring him back down onto the floor.

“B-But Master Luke!”

“He’ll be fine.” she replied, “We have to stay here.”

He growled and writhed in her grip. Ben didn’t know what was happening. All he knew was that he was scared. Scared out of his mind. Was Luke okay? Was San Tekka handling himself all right? What did that Knight spike him with? It was almost like he was… losing… control…

His skin felt really itchy. He was also hot. A wave of heat swept over him. Compulsively, he scratched at himself, really scratched at himself. Aucune looked at him concernedly as Ben tore through the sleeve of his Jedi robe, raking his nails across his skin. A red rash formed on the inner side of his forearm as he dug his fingers into himself. Ben felt shivers run up and down his spine, a tingling sensation of dread.

“What’s…” Ben gasped as he realised he was making himself bleed, “What’s happening?!”

“Don’t panic,” Aucune gently held his wrist, stopping him from clawing at his own arm, “Panicking makes it worse.”

“Don’t panic?!” he fearfully scoffed, “I’m… I-”

He looked at his hands. No wonder he was making himself bleed, he had long, black claws tipping each finger.

He tried to scream but Aucune covered his mouth. He slapped her gloved hand, muffledly protesting.

“Keep quiet,” she looked up and around, “Or they’ll hear you and then we’ll be in big trouble.”

He didn’t listen. He really went for it. He kicked about, screaming into her arm. A gentle hand was placed on the top of his head. Aucune seemed to be a little out of her depth.

“Ugh…” she sighed, “I was never good with kids…”

He writhed and bit a little at her arms. His sudden movements caused the little baby clinging to Aucune’s sling to whimper and tear up.

“Hey!” she scolded, “You can struggle all you want. But no biting! I really don’t want an infected wound on my sword arm. Not to mention, the baby will end up giving us away!”

He bit harder.

Aucune turned her arm a little so that his teeth sunk into her beskar steel plate, well, more like awkwardly slid over them. Ben snarled and continued his protest.

She looked down at him, he glared at her Mandalorian helmet with teary eyes. She shook her head slightly and loosened her grip. Ben raked his claws against the metal, creating an awful scraping sound. She was stronger, however, and kept him in place. He growled and reached for her face. She caught his hand. His eyes widened.

She gently placed it on his lap.

He slowed down a little. His jaws unclasped. Then he dug his hands into her arms again. She didn’t seem all too phased.

“Easy, easy,” she muttered, seemingly addressing simultaneously him, her kid and herself, “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t!” he roared.

“You’re fine.”

“I’m not!” he screeched, his voice cracking halfway through.

“Take a few breaths. Count to ten, human again.”

“What?”

“Count to ten, human again.”

He took a few breaths and closed his eyes. He counted to ten. One, the itchiness of his skin began to subside a little, Two, he felt his heart slow down. Come to six and he could sense those strange claws recede. Finally at ten, he still had a fever but he was calmer than before.

Aucune gently rocked him as his eyes felt heavy. A sensation of overwhelming drowsiness swept over him. Ben leaned back, allowing Aucune to support him. She ran a hand through his hair, giving a small sigh of relief as he rested his head on her armoured chest.

“What did they do to me?” he sleepily asked.

“Proto-poison,” she calmly said, her voice soothing, “It’s temporary. Don’t worry.”

“O-Okay,” he hummed, feeling sleepier and sleepier by the minute.

“Udes, udes, gar're tayli'bac, pup.”

Ben looked up to see Aucune staring off into the distance, absentmindedly singing. He closed his eyes, silently listening in.

“Vaabir nayc cuyir kaden. Ni dinu ner skraan. Loras.”

He hadn’t really heard Mando’a, not like this, anyway.

“Kyr gar hunger. Shed gar pel'gam.”

“Gar are tayli'bac. Gar are su ner burc'ya.”

She continued to rock him gently, back and forth as he entered a small sleep. Her hands were both shielding her little one and Ben himself.

“Udes, udes, gar're tayli'bac, pup.”

Aucune eased him onto the floor, so that his head was resting on her lap. A small smile crept onto her lips under her helmet as she stroked his hair, relieved he was okay. He wrapped his arms around her waist, peacefully asleep. A small snore came from him, causing her to chuckle lightly.

The moment’s bliss was cut short.

A figure came into view. Approaching the trio. Aucune readied her weapon, pushing the baby firmly to the back and out of view. She still was gently stroking Ben’s hair, desperate to not awake him.

“Anya.” she spat.

“I’m Nine, now. Actually.” they knelt before her.

“Are you-”

“No. We won’t take him. Besides, he’s too young. He’ll die upon infection, I can see he’s barely fighting off the cheap stuff the Knight injected him with.”

“What do you want then?” Aucune straightened herself slightly.

Nine shifted in their place, “I… uh, actually wanted to give you something.”

They procured a tape from their pocket.

“Closure.” they said.

Aucune eyed the small thing before snatching it and placing it in a pocket.

“You off then?” she asked at Nine got back onto their feet.

“Yeah,” Nine pulled their cowl over their shoulders, “See you around, sister. Hope we can one day reunite, maybe as a family again.”

“We won’t.” Aucune snarled.

“You never know.”

Then Nine peered over Aucune’s hand, to find a sleeping baby tightly wrapped in a pelted sling, hand-stitched furs had almost hidden her from the loyalist… almost.

“Who’s the kid?” their voice shakily asked. “By the Force, is she yours?!”

“Does it matter to you?”

Nine glanced down, then back up again. “It’s yours,” they said, pausing for a moment. “It’s yours. It has to be. Who’s the father?”

“Who do you think?”

Nine paused again, only to start shaking their head at their own thoughts.

“No… No… He can’t be… “

“It is.”

“Oh Maker… Aucune… what have you-”

“I’m sure you didn’t just come here to lecture me and I’m also sure that your pals are taking their leave. Don’t keep them waiting. From what I’ve heard, Ren’s not a patient man.”

With that, Nine shut up and left.

Aucune took out the tape and examined it. It was from the Sith Eternal, the signet of the dagger was cast into the metal casing. She sighed. The Mandolorian didn’t need to use the Force or even see the contents of the thing to know what it entailed. The death of her brother was on that tape. The first ever recorded lycanthrope. And the first heir of Palpatine. Until the old man had other plans.

“What did they do to you?” she asked as she flipped the tape over, “I’ll see later.”

She put it back in her pocket. Ben mumbled something and shifted. Aucune hushed him and rubbed his back, trying to distract herself from the dread that tape had brought her. Her little one had begun to nibble one of the beads on her dreadlocks, she smiled under her helm and brought the sling forward, so that she would be more comfortable in Aucune’s arms.

Soon the muffled yells and clashes came to an end. As soon as Nine disappeared, Lor San Tekka came around the corner. Along with Luke.

The Jedi got down onto his knees and felt his nephew’s forehead.

“He’s got a fever.”

“It’ll pass.”

“Is he-”

“No.” Lor San Tekka sharply said.

Luke looked at him quizzically, trying to decipher the bluntness of his tone, but soon waved it off and returned to tending to Ben.

“One of the Knights said he'll ‘shift’, whatever that means. Has he… did he do anything?”

Aucune shook her head, “He had a little moment. He’s fine now. He might go through a semi-change-”

“Those are always the worst,” San Tekka awkwardly chuckled.

“- if so, lock him up in his quarters. I don’t think he will, though.”

“Will he remember any of this?” Luke filtered through the boy’s mind for a brief second.

“No. Maybe, vaguely?” she shrugged, “We’ll have to see.”

Luke nodded before reaching to take Ben from her. In his sleep, Ben growled and tightened his grip around Aucune. Lor gave a small snicker. Luke laughed a little, relieved his nephew seemed to be somewhat his defiant self. However, Aucune couldn’t take him, she already had her little one to tend to. Doing his best not to disturb Ben, Luke pried him off Aucune’s waist and carried the boy in his arms to the ship.

The Knights of Ren had left with no trace. Apart from Ren’s mask, which rested on the floor, balancing on its edge.

The ship journey back was awfully quiet.

_**My boy. Snoke’s voice tried to reach out, How are you keeping?** _

No reply.

_**Hello?/strong >** _

****

Ben was soundly asleep.

****

Kylo’s whole body almost jolted as the turbolift stirred. Lights flickered on and off for a second or two. He thought back to it. The woman. Her kid.

****

_The kid._

****

_Brown hair… matching big brown eyes… No. No! It couldn’t be…_

****

_But she knew San Tekka, and said he played a role in her upbringing, the woman too. The woman…_

****

He clutched his head.

****

_M-Maybe it was a coincidence?_

****

He wanted it to be. However, this was all too well-lined up to be a mere coincidence.

****

He knew Rey’s mother. He had met Rey’s mother.

****

But why hadn’t Rey?

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> The ex-stormtrooper let out a sigh of relief, resting his hands on his knees. 
> 
> “I thought we lost him!” 
> 
> “Well, we didn't!” 
> 
> “Holy crap… for a few seconds I genuinely thought Poe was a goner.”


	35. Made It Alive!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang finally catch up with Solo....

“Finn!” Rey called out, “Finn!”

“Rey?”

“Look!” she pointed ahead, to the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Oh my- is that?”

“Han Solo? I think so!”

They began to crawl faster, their knees hitting the metal floor in arrhythmical clunks. Soon, they were hunched over in front of the grate. The owner of the two legs standing in front of the hatch turned around. Rey staggered back a little unsure if they had the right person.

Then a familiar face crept into view.

“Han Solo!”

“Gosh, kids! I mean the vents, seriously?” he chuckled lightly as he removed the grate.

Finn and Rey tumbled out, dusting off their clothes and looking around a little paranoidly.

Chewie huffed in concern.

“He almost got us. Rey was this close,” Finn explained.

“Ben… “ Han looked to his friend, “We’ve got to get him.”

“What?” the ex-stormtrooper shrieked, before lowering his voice and apologising.

“Where’d you see him?”

“Han, I don’t think it might-”

“Believe it or not, it was Leia’s orders too.”

“I know, but,” Rey stuttered. “I’m not sure now is a good time.”

“If it means we have to haul him back to the Falcon then so be it! This is the only chance we have!”

Rey and Finn looked at each other, as if sharing their thoughts before turning back to Solo.

“Okay,” Rey said, “Let’s go after him.”

Finn remained silent, really unsure; he had a really bad feeling about this. He had seen the full extent of Ren’s violence, rage and wrath. He was young, but he was powerful. He felt like he knew Kylo Ren the best, in terms of what he would do - especially in a situation like this. However, he also knew that this was Han Solo’s son. He couldn’t sour the hopeful mood with his wintry words, he decided it would be best to keep quiet and look out for them.

He also remembered that he still had the lightsaber with him.

“Psst! Rey,” he procured the hilt, “Here.”

“I’m not taking that.” She whispered.

“What? Why?”

She scrunched up her face. “Because you’ve kept that underneath your codpiece, Finn!”

“These things don’t exactly have pockets!”

“Keep it with you.”

“All right.”

Rey looked at him, both mildly disgusted and confused. They kept walking on, following Han and Chewie. The halls were littered with dismantled maintenance droids and dropped blasters. Rey picked up a small pistol and tucked it into her belt. She watched Finn awkwardly stumble as he tried not to trip over the metal carnage, he grimaced at the sight before them… the aftermath of sheer anarchy. She felt a pang of guilt, these poor droids and personnel… she had caused this. The scavenger girl tried not to think about the chaos she had unleashed upon Starkiller and focused on keeping up with her friends. Finn’s hand found a way to hers, he looked about nervously. Rey gently held his shaking, gauntleted fist, a wave of sympathy rushed through her.

“What’s the matter?” The girl cocked her head to one side.

“Where’s Poe?” Finn’s voice was almost a whisper.

Han turned around with a warm smile. “He’s on the ship, don’t worry, squirt. We found him just before you two finally decided to come out of the vents, yourselves.”

The ex-stormtrooper let out a sigh of relief, resting his hands on his knees.

“I thought we lost him!”

“Well, we didn't!”

“Holy crap… for a few seconds I genuinely thought Poe was a goner.”

Rey patted him on the back and the gang kept moving. Han eyed the walls with a repressed uncertainty, he peered into every other open room, cautiously awaiting for something to jump out. Chewbacca wasn’t going to burden himself with such needless paranoia, he kept his eyes sharply ahead and his bowcaster close to his chest. It was silent around here, the only ambience they had were the faint wailings of the sirens and their own shaky breaths. The lights had stopped flashing now, choosing to remain a dim white. This was like something straight out of Han’s nightmares. They were alone, in a corridor, barely able to make out what was in front of them, with a creature on the loose.

A creature that was his son.

The smuggler sighed and steeled himself as they turned a corner. Just out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow make their way around the next bend. Han started to speed up, Chewie followed closely behind and so did the two other rebels. They all silently watched as Kylo Ren marched down from the balcony and took a step onto the bridge, Solo was about to go after him, only to be stopped by a large paw. Chewbacca shook his head.

“He’s my son, Chewie.” Han gently shoved off the hand and headed onwards, “You get yourselves to the other balconies, you know, to give me some cover just in case.”

The wookie nodded and shooed Finn and Rey away. Rey looked back to see Han cross the threshold and step onto the balcony overlooking the dark abyss of the planet’s reactor core. She gulped. Soon enough, Finn, Rey and Chewbacca found their own routes onto the other balconies. Stormtroopers had taken the ones below, the ones closest to Han, much to their inconveniences. Rey and Finn took the highest one while Chewie made for one midway up the dark walls.

Rey shivered as she felt the cold of Starkiller’s tundra leak into the space. She turned around to see their only exit. The gaping entranceway only brought chilling winds and nipping, bitter flecks of snow. She looked down to see Han place a firm foot on the bridge’s mesh floor.

“BEN!” He called out.

The knight froze at the sound of his father’s voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> He felt his hands beginning to shake. The low thrum of his heartbeat pounded in his ears. He bit down on his lip, trying to restrain himself as the hunger intensified. The prey, the release, it was right in front of him. A tantalizing jewel. 
> 
> He could hear Han’s breaths now. Oh how he needed to silence them! He ran his tongue over his teeth.
> 
> “Ben?” Han reached for the boy.


	36. With Blood, I Am Transfixed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo faces _his_ past...

“BEN!” Han called out.

Kylo halted. He slowly turned around.

“Han Solo, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

Han strode up to him. He would take this chance, the only chance it seemed he had right now, to get his son back. However, he did leave some distance between them, he couldn't be too careful.

“Take off that mask. You don’t need it.”

Ren’s voice was still. An unsettlingly indifferent tone left the helm.

“What do you think you’ll see if I do?”

“The face of my son.”

With a hiss and a click, the mask was removed. The face of Ben Solo lay underneath, though Han noticed some differences. There was a sharpness about him, a strange undertone of some lupine nature. His eyes were vivid, Han could have sworn he saw a glint of a tear. He looked so grown up now, a fear that the boy had made up his mind began to creep into Han’s mind’s eye.

“Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him.”

“That’s what they want you to believe, but it’s not true. My son is alive.”

A small snarl crept onto Ren’s lips.

“The Supreme Leader is wise. The Dark side is wise.”

He felt like an automaton, where was Han’s boy?

“They’re using you for your power. When they get what they want, they’ll crush you- you know it’s true.”

A seed of doubt was beginning to blossom in Ren’s mind, he’d tried to shake it off. Vines of Han’s words wrapped around his brain. He would not be swayed. “It’s too late.”

A whisper, a plea. Han’s heart fell.

“No it isn’t. Leave here with me, come home. We miss you.”

A silver dagger to Ren’s chest. He couldn’t go home, he needed them, the Sith. He needed them now more than ever. They seemed to be the only ones able to control him. As much as he hated to admit it, Kylo Ren would, no had already, become reliant on the Empire Eternal.

Han took another step forward. That’s when Kylo felt it. This pull. This… hunger.

“Not now. Not now. Not now.” He muttered under his breath. He silently cursed himself. The thought that had just crossed his mind disgusted him.

He felt his hands beginning to shake. The low thrum of his heartbeat pounded in his ears. He bit down on his lip, trying to restrain himself as the hunger intensified. The prey, the release, it was right in front of him. A tantalizing jewel.

He could hear Han’s breaths now. Oh how he needed to silence them! He ran his tongue over his teeth.

“Ben?” Han reached for the boy.

Suddenly, Ren began to back away. Han looked at him, confused. The boy’s eyes were wide with fear. _What did he have to be afraid of?_

"STAY BACK!" Kylo cried before flinching away. He held his head and groaned. He could feel his body already starting to heat up with hunger. He was quivering, unsteady like a famished animal.

"Easy, Ben. It doesn't have to be like this," Han took a tentative step closer.

"GET AWAY!" His mouth was beginning to water and his whole body was shaking now. The hunger burned in his stomach. He clenched his jaws tightly shut. Tears stung his eyes, it would take all his strength to not let the beast consume him… and Han.

"Please, son."

Ren lifted his arms and shielded himself. Han was sent a metre or two back. His body slammed into the metal meshing of the floor. He stumbled as he tried to regain his balance. Ren looked like a ghost in the dim lights of the Bridge: his pale, wavering form enshrouded in those black flowing robes.

Rey watched on from the balcony, helpless. She winced at every yap and whine that left Kylo's mouth. He sounded strange, like an animal.

Han approached him. He couldn't stand to see Ben like this. His boy. His baby boy. _His son._

Ren looked up at him, his eyes reflected the lights that surrounded them- like eerie pearls, they glistened. His hands were shaking violently. His body was hot with a fever. He hugged himself with his arms, he seemed to be on the verge of tearing himself apart.

Ren knew he’d even go as far as bite his own arm if it meant that Han Solo wasn’t going to have to see him like this.

"I can't do it… "

"Can't do what?"

Han pulled him into a tight hug. Ren writhed and whimpered.

"Breathe, Ben, breathe."

He did so. He breathed. He took in Han's comforting scent. Soon the shaking stopped. He felt his body being returned to him. He relaxed.

"That's it, you're all right."

"Help me… " he stuttered between sobs.

"Anything, son."

"I can't stop it… I can't… "

He plunged his fangs into Han's throat. The man didn't even have time to scream as Ren ripped out his windpipe. He spat out the cartilage and then tucked right in.

Rey and Finn screamed in absolute horror as the mighty Kylo Ren feasted on his father’s heart. The growls and snaps of bone echoed throughout the cavernous room.

The young Solo dropped his father's limp body onto the floor. Blood coated the lower half of his face. Sweet, sweet relief. However, the bliss was cut short at the sight of the corpse in front of him. Ren covered his mouth. What had he done?

He backed away from the corpse. The blood was still warm on his tongue. He couldn’t even articulate his disgust and horror. He reached for it and held the body. Tears streamed down his face. _What had he done?_

“NO!” Rey wailed.

Chewbacca cried out in despair.

Finn looked at Ren. A face of fear and shock stared at the figures on the bridge.

Kylo cradled his father’s corpse. His lip quivered, the man’s blood was all over him. He needed to rinse his mouth, wash his body, free himself from this. A shaking, slow hand touched his face. Bloodstained fingers caressed his cheek.

The last look on Han Solo’s face was that of betrayal and fear. Ren buried his face in the crook of his father’s right shoulder. His cries echoed throughout the void of small blaring lights and black metal. He looked up to the heavens. Chewbacca remained silent. He almost dropped his bowcaster. Is this what his nephew had become? Finn felt his eyes well up as a shiver ran down his spine.

“ **MONSTER!** ” Rey yelled.

In a fit of rage, Chewie shot at Ben. The boy staggered backwards, before seeing the rebels flee into the icy wilderness. He had just killed his father. He was in too deep. He needed to go through with. He also needed them dead. They had seen everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> “General Hux?”
> 
> The voice came from the other side of the door. He barely recognised it as that of the stranger who had accompanied Palpatine.
> 
> “General Hux isn’t in the room,” General Hux said, trying to do his best Kylo Ren impression. It didn’t work.
> 
> “GeNeRaL hUgS iSn’T iN tHe RoOm,” the stranger said, mocking him. “That was the worst Kylo Ren impression I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of terrible Kylo Ren impressions.”


	37. Cursed Beyond Comprehension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux becomes part of a not-so-grand escape.

“General Hux?”

Hux furrowed his brow. He hadn’t expected anyone to interrupt him while he was in the middle of questioning his life choices. Kylo Ren had just left the room - more like stormed out - leaving the general in a supply closet with a half-eaten packet of chewing gum, an empty tin of mints, and another ravaged overcoat.

“General Hux?”

The voice came from the other side of the door. He barely recognised it as that of the stranger who had accompanied Palpatine.

“General Hux isn’t in the room,” General Hux said, trying to do his best Kylo Ren impression. It didn’t work.

“GeNeRaL hUgS iSn’T iN tHe RoOm,” the stranger said, mocking him. “That was the worst Kylo Ren impression I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of terrible Kylo Ren impressions.”

“Whatever. Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I’m Nine. Phasma and Mitaka sent me to come and get you.”

Hux reluctantly opened the door. “Phasma and Mitaka what?” 

The general’s visual aids allowed him to see… up to a point. He had an implant built into the side of his neck that connected to his Wayfarers, which held hidden optical instruments and cameras. It was more machine recognition than true vision, but it was enough. Being able to ‘see’ infrared and ultraviolet was quite nifty; the only downside was that the device relied on VADER’s artificial intelligence systems, and VADER was a pain in the arse.

From what he could tell, the stranger called Nine wore black combat gear and a visor-like mask that revealed almost none of their face, carried two lightsaber-like devices, and was holding something that looked suspiciously like a packet of bubblegum in their left hand. They awkwardly tried to balance what looked like their bicycle against the corridor, before giving up and using the kickstand instead.

“Phasma and Mitaka are in the data facilities. Kylo Ren’s favourite command shuttle is nearby. Hux, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“What? Desert my kriffing planet? No!”

“YES!” VADER yelled.

“Damn it.”

Something rumbled in the distance.

“What the kriff was that?” Hux screeched.

“The Resistance are attacking Starkiller Base. Someone’s probably going to blow it up. Do you want to be the next Tarkin?”

“No?!”

“Then get on my bike!”

“Nine, that’s not a great way of escaping- AH!”

Nine pulled Hux onto the back of their stolen bike and pedalled away.

“You do know I’m technically blind?”

“Yeah,” Nine said nonchalantly. “You’re still here, though.”

“Here? Wait, what are you doing, what the- SNOW?!”

They had made it out of the corridors and through the exits. A valley of snow lay between them and the data facilities.

“SNOW? YOU MEAN TO RIDE THIS THROUGH SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW?” Hux screamed. “WHY CAN’T YOU TAKE THE TRAVELATORS LIKE A NORMAL PERSON?!”

“There are no more travelators.”

A few X-Wings fired in the sky above.

“X-WINGS? YOU MEAN TO PEDAL YOUR BIKE IN THE SNOW, WHILE X-WINGS ARE SHOOTING AT US?!”

“I mean to pedal my bike in the snow, while X-Wings are shooting at us.”

“NO!”

“YES!”

Hux felt Nine pedal harder, only to get the wheels stuck in the deep snow.

Nine growled. “Why is it stuck in the snow?”

“Of course it gets stuck in the snow!” Hux said. “What idiot cycles in the snow?”

“My kind of idiot!”

“Get off the fucking bike and walk!”

“No!”

Hux got off the bicycle and walked. Nine also got off the bike, carried it, and walked, disappointed that they couldn’t heely their way out of this.

“Great, now we’re stuck.”

“No shit! This was your idea!”

Nine grunted under the bike’s weight.

“Hux?”

“What.”

“Can you help me carry the bike?”

“No.”

The pair of them trudged towards the data facilities.

Hux turned towards Nine. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m Nine. I’m a Sith. I stole a bike from the First Order-”

“You what?!”

“Yeah,” they said. “Well, they didn’t really do anything about it.”

The general grumbled to himself.

“Hey, it was only a bike,” Nine said.

“It WaS oNlY a BiKe?!”

“Whatever, who cares. This place is going to be blown up sooner or later. It’s another Death Star, after all. Isn’t that how this all usually plays out?” The Sith paused. “Oh wait.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Both of them continued dragging themselves through the snow.

“Hux?” Nine asked.

Hux glared at the Sith. “What is it?”

“Do you want a piece of bubblegum?”

“Are you serious? We’re in the middle of deep, deep snow, and you’re offering me a piece of bubblegum?”

“Yes, I’m offering you a piece of bubblegum.”

“You’re struggling under the weight of your own bike, while also trying to not trip over your heelys, and you’re still offering me a piece of bubblegum?”

“Why not?” the Sith said, retracting their visor slightly. “It’s a good flavour. It’s-”

“I really don’t want to know.”

Nine ignored Hux, and began to chew on a piece of gum. “It’s a three course meal. Tomato soup, roast beef, baked potato, blueberry pie, and ice cream.”

“Hang on, what? This isn’t bubblegum! That’s high calorie space food that somewhat resembles bubblegum! How many have you eaten? How are you not dead?”

“Hey, stop being a spoilsport. It’s bubblegum. It’s clearly bubblegum.” Nine popped another piece into their mouth. “And it’s really delicious.”

“The last time I offered someone something like gum, it didn’t end well,” Hux muttered. “They proceeded to violate my overcoat and chew on a broom.” He pointed at the packet, “This is an omen.”

After a few more minutes of Hux whining, Nine telling Hux to stop whining but also whining themselves, and VADER being annoyed at the both of them, the pair finally managed to make it to the data facilities…

...only to find three Red Guards standing outside the entrance.

 _Red Guards._ Nine shuddered at the thought of them. The Red Guards were the Sith Eternal’s most elite military operatives. There were a hundred of them in total, and each one had their training personally overseen by the Emperor himself. Almost all of them had some bearing in the Force, even if they weren’t particularly strong with it; their brute strength made up for anything they lacked. 

The three that stood before Hux and Nine now were clad in their signature red chromium armour, with red retractable chromium armorweave capes that fluttered in the wind. Each of them carried a red chromium blaster rifle, a red chromium baton, and chromium supplies. Chromium was one of the rarest materials in the galaxy; embedding its pure form into everything they wielded and wore was nothing but a show of strength and power.

One of them stepped forward. “General Armitage Hux of the First Order,” they said. “Nine, Faithful Servant of the Sith Eternal. The Emperor wants you.”

Nine glared at them through their visor. “Tell the Emperor to leave me be,” they said. “I’ll make my own way out of here.”

“I don’t think so,” another Red Guard said, stepping forward and unsheathing their baton. “You have no real authority within the Sith Eternal. Don’t you remember?”

Nine remembered. They had refused a permanent rank within the Order, preferring the flexibility of being able to do their own thing. Most others in the Sith Eternal looked down on them for that reason, though they paid them no attention.

The third Red Guard stepped forward. “We do not answer to you. We do not answer to anyone but the Emperor himself.” They paused. “Why disobey him now, when all your lives are at stake?”

“I need to extract three members of the First Order High Command,” Nine said. “I’m not going to leave them to die here.”

The first Red Guard snickered. “Hux, Phasma, Mitaka - their names mean nothing to me. Their ranks mean nothing to me. Their lives mean nothing to me. Nothing about them matters to any of us.”

Nine could feel Hux reach for something in his overcoat behind them.

“We are the Sith Eternal,” the second Red Guard said. “We are everything the First Order is not. We are swifter, stronger, superior. We could crush your funny little friends in minutes-”

“Don’t!”

“Then cooperate, Nine,” the third one said. “Cooperate, now.”

Nine closed their eyes underneath their visor, trying to concentrate on the Force. Nothing. They cursed underneath their breath. Nothing. The Sith tried to reach out for something, anything. Nothing again.

A Red Guard’s voice echoed in the back of their mind. “Cooperate.”

 _ **Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate,**_ their mind screamed out. Submit to the will of the Sith Eternal. Submit to the will of the Emperor. Submit. Nine turned around, dimly aware of a small device falling to the ground. _What’s happening?_ they tried to ask. _What’s going on?_ They felt themselves falling too. _Why are they messing with my mind?_

 _Why are they messing with my mind?_ the Sith repeated. _Why, why, why are they messing with my mind? My mind? My-_

“WHY ARE YOU MESSING WITH MY MIND?” Nine yelled. The Sith collapsed to the ground, wincing underneath the weight of a heavy First Order bicycle. Whatever influence the Red Guards had on them seemed to disappear at once. They had done it; they had fought them off.

At least, they thought they had.

Nine stumbled back up to find a guard pointing their blood-red baton at Hux’s neck. Another guard pointed their blaster at the general, while yet another pointed one at them. The small, pager-like device that had fallen to the ground beeped and flashed intermittently, as if sending a signal. It was impossible to tell which was which.

“Submit to us now, and we’ll spare his life,” a Red Guard said.

 _Liar_ , Nine thought. _They’re going to cut him open anyway._

“I’m not going to say this again,” the trooper repeated. “Submit, or he dies.”

The guard with the baton inched the sharp end closer to the general’s jugular. He gazed at the Sith pleadingly, only to be met with an opaque monolith of a mask. Nine steeled themselves, keeping their eyes fixed on the pager. Any second now…

The doors to the data facilities swung open.

Phasma and Mitaka opened fire on the Red Guards, who released their grip on Hux and Nine. The two of them readied their weapons and prepared to fight. This was going to be messy.

“Dickheads!” the Stormtrooper captain shouted. “Don’t you even try to touch them. I’m tired, I’m fed up, and my children keep on arguing.”

“My children?” Hux said.

“Shut up. You’re being rescued. Please do not try to resist-”

A droid wheeled itself through the double doors at high speed, smashing the glass as it did so.

“That was my line!” it said, particularly annoyed.

Hux spared it a glance. “Why are you even here?”

“I’m a rogue, reprogrammed KX-series droid for medical purposes. This is what I do.”

It whipped out two blasters in its newly-repaired arms.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re all doing,” the droid said, “but you’re all getting medicated.”

The Red Guards began their offensive. They were outnumbered five to three, but those weren’t odds that they hadn’t seen before. Each one alternated between deflecting with their baton and firing with their blaster. If dragging Nine to the Emperor’s shuttle meant cutting down each and every member of the First Order that stood in front of them, then so be it.

VADER chimed in through Hux’s implant. “Let’s take this inside.”

“Yeah,” answered Hux, who swung himself around what remained of the data facility’s doors. “Come on!”

The droid entity used the opportunity to play loud, blaring music over the building’s sound system. Power, speed, grace, someone whispered. Power, speed, grace. The lights began pulsating along with the beat, their movements violent and visceral.

 _We travelled here through the reaches of space_ , the voices said. Nine sprinted inside, igniting their sabers as they did so; one blade was bleeding red, while the other was as black as night. We travelled here to dance on your face. They clambered up a stairwell to their right and waited for the right moments. The Red Guards would follow the others in, not knowing that they would be waiting up above; waiting for the right moment to pounce down on them, and finish them off.

 _We cause the sun to rise_ , the track continued. Phasma, Mitaka, and Patricia followed along, trying to hold off the troopers for as long as possible. We dance so no one dies. The Red Guards were pushing forwards, however, and managed to chase them into the compound.

_We dance like Jedi!_

“Run!” Phasma exclaimed. “I’ll hold them off.”

_You won’t believe your eyes..._

The Sith froze. Phasma, alone, did not stand the slightest chance against them. They watched the others disappear at the end of the corridor as the Stormtrooper captain held her ground. The Red Guards were moving even faster now, pushing her into a corner.

_We have the highest midichlorian count..._

It was now or never.

_...which means that you have a lesser amount._

Nine leaped from the stairwell and landed behind the guards, distracting them enough to buy time for Phasma to escape. They swiped at one of them with a saber, causing them to double over in pain. The Sith did not hesitate to slash at them again and finish them off. They pulled their saber away from the body, only to meet the blasters of the two remaining guards.

_So please report to the dance floor..._

“You can’t kill me,” they said. “The Emperor wants me alive.”

_We’ll show you more of your dancing skills if you’re unsure._

“We’ll stun you, then,” a guard replied, “and once we’re done with you, we’ll obliterate the rest of them.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“Did you just hear that?”

“Hear what?”

_We dance like Jedi…_

“ _...because we’re Jedi!_ ” Nine rapped.

The Sith managed to slink away enough to strike at the guards again. Everybody get down to the force. They swung their sabers, almost landing killing blows. Everybody do the dance of the fates. A Red Guard fired at them, only for them to skillfully dodge it. Everybody get in tune with the sauce. Another trooper tried to aim for their chest, only for them to parry it away. As we dance in the dance of the fates. Nine kicked a guard down and ran down the corridor, not caring to look back.

The guards glanced at each other in confusion. 

“Did they just say…”

“No,” the other one answered. “This song is a bop, that’s all.”

Without a single word more, they continued.

Hux, Phasma, Mitaka, and Patricia had made it to the other end of the data facility when Nine arrived.

“You’re here!” Mitaka said.

“Yeah,” Nine answered. “Let’s go.”

Before they could go, something stopped them in their tracks.

A roar echoed through the entirety of Starkiller Base, followed by a couple of snaps, crackles, and pops, and the screams of a man and woman. The blaring techno music suddenly cut off. Everything had become frozen with fear. 

“What was that?” 

“What do you think?”

Everyone glared at each other in silence, realising what this was.

“Come on, I think we should start quickening our paces.”

“Y-Yeah…“

Hux swiped his hand over the intercom, and the double doors opened. 

Everything about the outside world felt off. 

The first thing he noticed was that it was night, not day; it had been midday when Nine had rescued him from the supply closet. Yet as he looked at the sky through his Wayfarers - he couldn’t technically see, but VADER filled in the gaps for him - everything pointed to it being the middle of the night. 

The second thing he noticed was the weather. Thunder and lighting rumbled in the distance as snowflakes hurled themselves down to the ground. It wasn’t stormy before, but it was now. Something about that frightened him; in all the years he had supervised the base’s construction, he had never once seen a storm of this magnitude.

The third thing that he noticed was the temperature. Starkiller Base was cold, but it was never this cold; it had never been this cold. As if on cue, Hux’s implant changed visual data to thermal data, feeding it straight into his mind. VADER briefed him on the specifics, as usual. What he saw, however, left him speechless.

“General Hux?”

Five kilometres to the left of them was a giant ball of heat. It radiated outwards, quickly consuming the general’s field of view. A bestial snarl came from the same direction, reverberating through the whole planet again. Something had gone terribly wrong. Something- He saw two eyes stare at him as VADER honed in on the strange shape, he quickly turned his head. 

The base’s central power supply shut off.

“VADER, what happened?”

“Starkiller’s being ripped apart,” the droid entity began. “The wolf alarm meant we had to evacuate the entire planet. We had to disable the shield generators in order to allow the evacuation vehicles to come in. Unfortunately, it just so happened to be that a couple of Resistance squadrons are infiltrating and destroying the base as we speak. By my estimates, we have seventeen minutes before it implodes on itself.”

“What?”

“What?!”

“WHAT?!”

VADER digitally shrugged its shoulders.

“Welcome to emergency mode.” The four glanced at each other in fear and confusion alike. The Kahoot theme didn’t play on the speaker systems this time - instead, a trap remix of a late nineties song all of them recognised, but none of them knew the name of. “The nearest exits are here, here, and here, and the routes to the nearest available escape vessels have been illuminated for your convenience. Senior officials of the First Order - yes, I’m looking at you, Hux, Mitaka, and Phasma-”

“VADER, no…”

“Will be given priority above other individuals. Oh, and that includes the Sith Eternal too. Damn you, Palpatine. Thank you for your service to Starkiller Base, to the First Order, to the Sith Eternal, to the Empire Eternal if that’s even a thing, and to the Supreme Leader… if he’s even alive anymore.”

“Can we go now?”

“Yes, General Hux. Wait, hold on. There’s a stray cat…”

No one heard VADER’s warnings about a stray cat running amuck on the smouldering wreck of Starkiller Base. The four of them ran out into the cold, trying their best to follow the lights and make it back to the shuttle. Hux shivered as he trudged through the snow, but he pressed on regardless. _We have seventeen minutes_ , he thought. _That’s enough time. That’s enough_ …

“RRRRRRIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW!”

The general was knocked to the ground. 

“General Hux?” Nine said, rushing towards him.

Hux grimaced. “I’m alright.”

The sudden, sharp impact meant he struggled to get up. Luckily, his Wayfarers were in one piece. He put them on, trying to find the culprit. _Not Kylo Ren, please not Kylo Ren_ …

“Miaow?”

It was at that moment that Hux realised he had just been pinned down… by a cat; more specifically, a ginger cat that almost looked like his own reflection. The general awkwardly petted it, before passing it over to Nine as he got back up on his feet.

“How did a cat just knock me to the ground?”

The cat in question leapt right back into his arms. Hux examined the collar. _Oh. That’s why she’s here._ He read out what it said.

“Millicent the Cat, property of Steve McGeeve, Radar Technician on the Finalizer. Contact the First Order High Command if lost.”

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do or say.

“We’re keeping her,” Hux said. “Steve deserved better.”

“Steve deserved better,” Phasma replied.

Mitaka nodded. “Guys?”

“What?”

“Do you see that?”

Two figures were approaching them on the horizon.

Nine glanced at the cat. “Oh shit. Hux?”

“Yeah?”

“I have cat treats on me,” they said, unzipping a pocket and passing a small pack of Dreamies to Hux. “Here. Keep these on you. Your cat will go running for them.”

The general wordlessly accepted the packet as the rest of them readied their weapons. Kylo Ren’s command shuttle was now within view, albeit several minutes away. The four of them would have to be quick about this if they wanted to stay alive.

A Red Guard yelled. “You coward! You’ll pay for this. The Emperor-”

“The Emperor?” Nine asked. “Oh, the soggy potato man? No thanks.”

With that, the Sith ignited their sabers and hurled themselves towards the two guards. Phasma and Mitaka soon followed, trying to pull them away from Hux. The troopers put up a fight - it took Nine several attempts to get even the slightest of opportunities for a killing blow. Even then, it wasn’t enough. Hux had Millicent nestled away in his overcoat as he too began firing on the Red Guards, but they continued to push them back. After a minute or so, Nine saw an opening.

“PHASMA!”

Phasma turned towards Nine as much as she could. “What is it?”

“I need you to get behind the trooper to your left.”

“Behind them?”

“Now!”

Nine slashed their black saber across the guard’s torso and pushed them towards the stormtrooper captain, who made quick work of them.

“One down, one to go,” Phasma said. “Wait, where-”

“It’s in the sky!” Mitaka yelled.

“What?!”

“It’s in the fucking sky!”

The last surviving Red Guard hovered on a jetpack above them and pulled out another blaster. 

Nine frowned underneath their visor. “This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!”

Flashes of lightning illuminated their red chromium armour, making the trooper look like a bleeding gash in the sky. More howling and more screams could be heard in the distance, as well as the dull rumbling of explosives going off. Starkiller Base was dying; there was no doubt about that.

“How long do we have?” Hux asked.

“Just over nine minutes,” chimed VADER. “I have a crazy idea that’s not going to work.”

“Guys?”

Everyone turned to face Hux, while also trying to dodge blaster bolts flying left, right, and centre. “What, Hux?”

“VADER has a crazy idea that might work.”

“Damn you, Hux,” VADER whispered through the implant.

“Well, go on then!”

“Everybody drop your weapons.”

Phasma, Mitaka, and Nine stared at Hux incredulously.

“Seriously, it’s going to work. On the count of three?”

“This isn’t going to-”

“One…”

“You can’t-”

“Two…”

“This is a really, really bad idea.”

“Three!”

Everyone dropped their weapons.

The lone trooper kept on firing at the four of them, but cautiously began to lower their altitude. The fuel reserves of their jetpack would only last so long, and they needed to get closer to their targets if they even hoped to land a killing blow. 

“The Red Guard’s getting close. Pick them up and go for the back!”

The four of them struggled to wrestle the guardsman to the ground, not least because they kept on trying to reactivate their jetpack. Phasma tried to get a hold on the Red Guard while Nine and Hux picked up the weapons scattered in the snow and shot at the trooper. Mitaka crawled in close, trying to get as near a shot as possible. They had less than eight minutes by now, and the craft was at least five minutes away.

“MITAKA, DO IT NOW!”

The sound of a blaster firing echoed through Starkiller base. Mitaka had shot a plasma bolt straight through the trooper’s back, sending him flying forwards…

...in the General’s direction.

Hux yelped and stumbled backwards, knocking Millicent out of his overcoat. The Red Guard raised their blaster and stared death into the general’s eyes, only to be sent tumbling to the ground by a bright, ginger cat. The weapon fired, but it missed Hux completely; Millicent’s distraction let Mitaka reach for the blaster and fire it again at the trooper, killing them.

Hux stared at the cat, dumbstruck.

VADER chimed in through a concealed speaker on his Wayfarers. “We have six and a half minutes,” it said. “You’ll have to sprint if you want to make it out alive.”

So they sprinted.

The five of them - Hux, Mitaka, Phasma, Nine, and Millicent in Hux’s overcoat - ran to the command shuttle like Kylo Ren was chasing them there. By the time they boarded, they had a minute and a half left to get the ship off-world.

“I can help fly this thing,” Nine said, “along with someone else - probably Phasma, if she’s up for it. Can you help configure VADER into the-”

VADER chimed through the Upsilon-class command-shuttle’s system. “Hello.”

“Hello, VADER. Can you get this craft on autopilot?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I don't feel like it.”

Everyone rolled their eyes.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! I’m trying to boot up here, connecting via holonet is tricky business.”

“Right then, we need to fly this thing ourselves,” Nine said, flicking each and every one of the controls they could find. “I’ve retracted the landing gear, fired up the engines, activated the HUD… anything else?”

Phasma interjected. “You’ve forgotten to ignite the boosters. Remember to deploy the wings before you jump to hyperspace. Don’t listen to VADER, he’s a piece of space trash.”

“So are you,” VADER replied.

“Shut up.”

The craft lifted itself from the ground. By VADER’s count, there was less than a minute remaining before Starkiller Base blew itself up. Nine pressed some more buttons on the console, while Phasma tried to reconfigure the spacecraft’s settings. Hux leaned forward in his chair as much as he could; Mitaka clung onto his Death Star stress ball for dear life.

“This one’s going to be tight,” Phasma began. “It’ll be safe to jump in thirty seconds. Starkiller’s going to blow up in forty.”

Hux frowned. “We have a ten-second margin?”

“We’re losing it,” Nine said. “Mitaka?”

“Yes?”

“Throw me a packet of Space Raiders.”

“Space Raiders?” Mitaka exclaimed, slightly confused. “I thought they were only a Coruscant thing. Where?”

“They’re in the backpack underneath your seat,” Nine replied.

Mitaka reached for the backpack, only to find himself being dazzled by the obnoxiously-bright reflections of its many metallic sequins. “I can’t see a thing,” he complained. “How do you-”

“Twenty seconds until jump, thirty until implosion,” Phasma interjected. “We don’t have time. We really don’t.”

Mitaka unzipped the bag, pulled out the packet of Space Raiders, and tossed it in the general direction of Nine.

“Thanks,” they said. “VADER, how’s the hyperdrive?”

VADER chimed in. “Slow to start, but it’s getting somewhere. I’ll set the lights after I finish up the drivers. Strap yourselves in.

“Ten seconds,” Phasma said, steadying herself as she placed a hand upon the jump lever.

Kylo Ren’s command shuttle shook with an almost unheard-of intensity. Millicent nestled herself deeper into Hux’s overcoat while Mitaka uneasily glanced at the crumbling planet through the spacecraft’s main window. Nine, holding a half-bitten Space Raider in their hand, reclined their seat. The stormtrooper captain kept her gaze firmly fixed upon the main console, trying her best to make sense of the flickering, flashing digits on the displays.

“Five, four, three, two, one…”

Starkiller Base became nothing but a blur beneath blinding, swirling streaks of black and blue and white.

“Zero.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> The red lightsaber growled as its owner twirled it, daringly.
> 
> “TRAITOR!” he yelled.
> 
> Finn steeled himself, angry determination lining his brow.
> 
> “That lightsaber,” Solo’s son said, “it belongs to me.”
> 
> “Come and get it, dog!”


	38. It's Dark And Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo _catches up_ with Rey and Finn... get it... get it... I'll see myself out.

Snow fell thickly from a dark, monolithic cloud that engulfed the sky all above. Rey and Finn bolted out from a balcony, shivering as they sprinted. The cold was by no means their worst enemy. Han Solo had just been slaughtered in front of their eyes; slaughtered by his own son, who tore him apart with his own teeth. Kylo Ren had been shot in the chest by Chewbacca, but he would no doubt kill the both of them if he had the opportunity.

The blinding glare of artificial lamps mingled with the natural darkness of space gave an illusion of hellish moonlight. A mixture of fear and dread swelled in Rey’s stomach as she clung to Finn, tightening her grip on her blaster. She shivered as a stream of lava-like adrenaline coursed through her. He’s coming, the girl thought. He’s coming for us. She moved to sprint away. He’s-

Kylo Ren emerged from the shadows of Starkiller Base.

A strange, feral glint shone in his dilated and silverish eyes. He grunted and growled as he ran a gloved hand through his hair, sweeping it back. Rey felt Finn nudge her on, although she didn’t move a single centimetre; she was paralysed, awestruck at the unholy creature that took proud yet furious strides towards them. 

“Ben,” Rey said. “This isn’t you.”

Kylo snarled at her. “This is me. This is who I am now.”

“You were never you,” Finn said. “Even before this, before everything.”

“Come home, Ben. Come to the light-”

A guttural, inhuman noise came from deep within Kylo’s chest. Rey closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped forwards.

“Ben, you don’t have to do this.” She tentatively reached a hand out towards him. “It’s not too late. Please.”

He looked at her outstretched palm curiously, as if contemplating her offer. Rey saw a glimmer of something other than fury in his eyes. She gave a subtle smile encouragingly. Finn waited behind her, unsure of what he’d do next, fearful this silence from him wasn’t trustworthy. 

Kylo raised his lightsaber in his right hand and swiped it at her; she stumbled backwards and screamed as Finn ran to her side.

Just as Finn was about to grab her arm and drag her towards the Falcon, Rey darted ahead. She sprung over the uneven ground and fallen trees and almost tripped over her legs. Everything felt as though someone had lit fireworks under her feet. Finn bounded after her, while Kylo pursued them both.

 _They won’t slip through my fingers again_ , he thought. _Not this time._ He wanted them dead. He needed them dead. He felt a strange sensation overtake him for the slightest of seconds, but paid it no attention. He would do whatever it took to end them - to fulfil his birthright.

Soon enough, Finn and Rey found themselves cornered. They faced a swarm of large trees and a stream cutting through their path like an old, open wound. A torrent of water gushed across, sending chunks of ice plummeting down to a mist-filled abyss below. They couldn’t risk bolting across; it was cold, too cold, and Finn noticed Rey’s lips were turning a haunted shade of blue. 

Kylo Ren caught up in almost no time. Finn gripped the lightsaber in his hands tightly and turned around, shielding Rey as he did so. The figure of darkness ahead of them let out a bestial snarl.

Rey wasn’t going to go down without inflicting some damage on the patricidal bastard who killed Han Solo, however. She held her blaster in front and took aim… only to be hurtled into a tree. The scavenger girl shrieked as her back slammed into the bark behind her. 

“Rey!” Finn cried as he ran over to her unconscious body on the floor. 

The red lightsaber growled as its owner twirled it, daringly.

“TRAITOR!” he yelled.

Finn steeled himself, angry determination lining his brow.

“That lightsaber,” Solo’s son said, “it belongs to me.”

“Come and get it, dog!” the former stormtrooper yelled. His face was illuminated by the blue glow of the legendary weapon he held in his very hands.

Fuelled purely by primal fear and rage, the so-called ‘traitor’ charged at Kylo. The sabers clashed with a scraping screech, lighting everything around them with a concoction of red and blue. Kylo took a step forward and swung his blade, Finn just about managed to catch it and parry to the right. Only for Ren to knock him back. He bared his pointed fangs at the ex-stormtrooper, Finn wasn’t phased in the slightest. He shoved Kylo backwards. Of course, being highly trained in lightsaber combat and a goddamn werewolf, this did little to Kylo Ren. Still, he kept banging his lightsaber against Ren’s. Over and over and over. Kylo, using all his strength, sent Finn tumbling backwards, he slammed into a tree. 

Nonchalantly, the half-creature twirled his blade as he awaited for Finn to get back up. A sense of pride warmed his heart; he felt human again. Even though he was hellbent on killing, he was killing like a human would: using skill and intellect over claws and fangs. The rebel shook off the initial shock and lunged at him. Soon, they were caught in a struggle. But not for long. Slowly, the crossguards of the red blade began to burn through Finn’s coat, then through his shirt, then through his skin. He cried in pain as the steam from his own body fluids rose into the air, slowly and steadily, the lightsaber began to devour him. 

That’s when Rey got up. Before her brain could even register what was happening, she shot at the black shadow before her. The sound of the blaster bolt ripped through the air and went straight through Kylo Ren. He roared and stumbled, giving Finn the opportunity to swipe the blue blade across Kylo’s right shoulder. His scarred shoulder. Agony tore through him as he cried out. 

Something told Finn now was a good time to run. He sheathed the blade and took Rey’s arm before fleeing. He didn’t care where he was going, nor did he care that he’d lost the Falcon’s lights, all he cared about was getting as far away from Kylo Ren as he could. Especially after pissing him off. The snow rose up, clouding his vision. He heard the bounding footsteps behind him. _I can’t lose that bastard, can I?!_

Finn slipped and skidded across an icy patch, sending Rey flying forward. A shot of numb pain sent electricity up his elbow as he strove to get back onto his aching feet. Rey helped him up. Her eyes trailed upwards to meet two ghostly pearls breaking through the dark. She stared as the watching eyes seemed to glow with a fierce, unnatural intensity. Gulping, Rey turned back towards Finn and desperately tried to get him back on his feet.

“That won’t help you,” Ben said.

She turned back to face him. Solo’s son was only a metre or so away from her. If Rey wanted to make it out alive, she had to get up. Cautiously, she rose, trying to back away as far as she could… until she felt the cold bark of a tree hit hard against her back.

The girl scoffed as best as she could. “You’re a monster.”

She noticed that Ben’s eye twitched - no, was twitching - at her. _So that’s how it is_ , she realised. _He doesn’t care. He doesn’t even care._

“It’s just us now,” he replied. “Me and you. You and me.”

Rey saw Finn get up in the corners of her periphery.

Kylo Ren glanced at the stormtrooper before turning back to face the scavenger girl. He could see now how he could toy with the two of them. However, them standing still wasn’t good enough. He wanted them to run and to scream. He needed them to run and scream. He could feel that need, that twisted craving… that lust. His blood was pumping hot through his veins now, the exhilaration of the hunt burned in him like a furnace.

He had them exactly where he wanted them to be. They were cornered; they couldn’t flee because they had nowhere to go. They couldn’t run because he would outrun them, and they couldn’t stand in the cold either because he would outlast them. They were his prey.

 _My prey,_ he realised. _They are my prey._

He watched them quiver and recoil with every step he took. This power he now had over them, it felt good. It may not have felt right, but it satiated something deep within him - a craving, a gut instinct, _a twisted need_. His hunger didn’t sit well with parts of him, but he couldn’t help admiring the scene before his looming shadow. This was life at its purest, most primal. 

And above all, he was in control...

...or so he thought.

That derisive smirk that subtly tugged at his lips was soon wiped away. Rey watched to see Kylo groan, clutch his chest and grab a tree like his life depended on it. She and Finn tried to move and scramble away, but alas! Their muscles decided to lock up and make their eyes watch. 

_Not now! Not now! Any time but now!_

He stifled another moan of agony as a snap sounded from deep within his chest. Then a crackle. Followed by a pop of some kind. Ren watched in complete and utter horror as steely black claws slowly began to push through, just above his knuckles. The webbing of leather and flesh, wet with blood, began to slowly and fall back as beastly fingers ruptured from the top of his hands. Not really thinking about what he was doing and just desperately trying to regain control of his body, he raked his sides with his own talons, screaming as they punctured his flesh and sunk into his breaking ribs. The knight doubled-over and fell to the ground. 

“Ben!” 

Rey rose up, only for Finn to drag her back to the ground. She wriggled in his grasp but suddenly sat stark still upon hearing the young Solo’s voice slightly distort, shifting between human groans and animalistic growls. 

The same thing was happening to his feet, dark claws pushed through the upper side of his boots, slowly crushing the human bone underneath. Causing dull but gruesome muffled crunches. His now almost fully distorted voice gave way to a roar of sheer agony. 

_Can’t… do it!_

His head throbbed with the stinging sensation of frozen needles stabbing his now-pallid face. Grimacing, he slammed his back against the tree - but it did nothing to stop this. Snapping and popping echoed throughout the lower half of his body as his lengthening spine forced his neck to crane upwards to the clouded stars. His heavy breaths were visible now more than ever; puffs of steam left the silhouette of jagged teeth that was now his gaping mouth. Blood dripped from it and seeped through the large gash that split straight through his lower lip. As he opened his mouth again to let out another banshee-cry, the split widened and spread downwards to his chin. His wolven, bloodsoaked hands dug into the bark. He clung to the tree, stamping his foot over and over like a tantruming child. The ice around his body evaporated into white steam and enshrouded him in cold fury. 

It was as if nature itself - no, if _fate_ itself - was doing this to him, as though he were nothing more than its plaything; as though he were reduced to nothing but a means to its cruel ends.

He pushed hard at whatever remained of his mind.

_Damn you._

Rey felt tears well in her eyes as she watched him thrash about. This was it - this was what the vision had warned her about, and she could do nothing about it. She was as powerless as Ben was. She could only imagine the agony he was in; to watch someone tear at themselves like this, to see them watch helplessly as their humanity was being ripped from them by their own hands…

It wasn’t scary.

_It was downright terrifying._

His chest - was it even his anymore? - rose and fell slowly, subtly growing wider and stronger with every breath. The muscles in his back stretched and pulled downwards, letting his shoulder blades descend and lead to his clavicles detaching from the rest of him. There was an eerie calmness about him, as though he had practised for this - as though he knew what was coming, as though he were on the verge of giving up. The moonlight outline illuminated the opera of agony unfolding in front of her and shone against the surfaces of the bones slowly sliding apart. And then he screamed.

“NO!”

Whatever Ben Solo once was writhed, convulsed, and thrashed, as if possessed by some kind of hellish demon. Spurts of blood and tears gushed out of the gaps in his body like torrents of molten glass, while scraps of human skin ripped themselves apart and fell to the ground. Finn caught sight of two eyeballs tumbling from Ben’s skull, before shielding his own eyes with a desperate hand.

His neck snapped and snapped and snapped again as his ears straightened up, pointing and peaking between his reddened black locks. Ben stopped restraining himself against the tree and dug his clawed hands into his face, bringing his head down and arching his back. A glossy hide of black fur emerged from the depths of his body and enveloped the split skin of his back.

A large tail swayed behind him, soaked in sweat, blood and melted snow. His legs were misshapen now, wrongly bent into two digitigrade, beastly appendages; his arms were too, now lengthened and awkwardly bent to have his elbows jut out to the side like sharp blades. Ben’s clothes were almost rags, barely clinging to him as swirls of black smoke, like an evil aura, rose from his burning body, the smell of sulphur and gore permeated the surrounding air. He still held his head, desperately trying to fight the change. A fool’s errand. He looked up to the sky once more, the white light outlining his profile like a gothic portrait, and cried. Tears fell from his bleeding, silver eyes as his face split apart. A snout underneath jerked forward. His whole body jolted as the muzzle of this infernal beast rhythmically pushed out from within him. 

The demon of darkness that now stood before them straggled forward, shaking off the last of its humanity as though it were mere grains of sand that clung to its greying coat. Everything that remained of its former self fell to the ground; blood streaked the white snow with deep crimson, while paw prints sullied it with their beastly mark. Whatever it was recoiled, quivered, and clawed at its own scalp. It shook its head side to side again and again, snarling and snapping… seemingly at itself. 

“Ben?” Rey found herself saying.

The hound whimpered, whined, and gazed up at her pleadingly.

“Ben, is that you?”

It reared its head back and howled. The wolf’s dark eyes, hungry and menacing, ogled the two targets in front of it. Rey and Finn had no choice but to...

“RUN!”

No other emotion laced Rey’s voice but the silent shake of terror.

Two - no, three, no, four - pairs of feet pounded the heavy ground beneath them. Finn and Rey sprinted for their lives as the wolf sprinted for its prey. Starkiller’s forest seemed to bend and warp beneath them as time and space fell all around them. Only fear remained now; a frigid, freezing fear that chilled the rebels to their core. 

Finn, feeling Rey stumble across the ice, took her hand in his and nudged her on. Both of them bolted over streams and snow-ridden paths, fighting the cold and the creature behind them. White slivers of snow spat cold in their faces as they leapt over fallen branches and weaved their way in and out of trees.

A wailing roar echoed behind them. sending fear and determination surging through their veins. Claws scuffed and scratched mere metres away from them, but they didn’t dare to look back - one mistake could cost them their lives. Rey was nearly out of breath; the cold was getting to her. Her fingers were numb, and her legs were growing stiff...

She faltered and fell. 

“Rey!” Finn yelled.

He picked her up. She was pallid and frail, overtaken by what looked like frostbite - and barely latching on to consciousness. The former stormtrooper hid behind a tree, hoping that it would conceal the both of them in its darkness. 

“Go without me,” she panted. “Get to the Falcon.”

He shook his head.

“I’m going to slow you down. He’ll kill both of us like-”

“He won’t.”

Finn took her onto his shoulders and pressed on. He wasn’t going to leave her! Not like FN-2003. He was not going to make that mistake again. Though Rey slowed him down slightly, he still managed to keep at a fast enough speed that whatever monster was coming after them was at a safe distance - a distance that was growing shorter with every passing second. Ren, who had shaken off the shock of the sudden transformation, was now running at full speed. 

Eyes widening, Finn pressed on. He could hear it clearly now, the gravelly breaths and bounding paws. It wasn’t muffled like before. The wolven shadow consumed the corners of his periphery. It was getting closer, closer and closer-

Bright blue lights broke through the blizzard. The Millenium Falcon. This was it! He could do it! He could...

A shot of pain ripped through his body. 

Metal claws sank into his calf and Rey tumbled out of his arms. He screamed out as he was released, left to bleed out onto the snow. Rey awoke from her frozen sleep to see Finn now being slowly dragged closer to Kylo Ren’s unhinged jaws.

“No!” she screamed and grabbed onto his hands, they were clammy with sweat but it didn’t matter. 

She pulled with all her might and Ren pulled with his. Finn held her by her wrists, praying this wasn’t the end. The poor girl was not letting go, she now reached for his shoulders and yanked him by his underarms. She growled as her grip slowly loosened. Kylo snarled at her, teeth intertwined in one another like some demonic smile. She shivered, cold fear running down her spine. Still, she would not relent. 

She clawed at Finn’s (well, Poe’s) jacket and heaved. Ren suddenly, let go. Unsure why, but not taking any chances to figure out his logic, Rey hauled Finn onto her shoulders and clumsily ran to the Falcon’s entrance. 

Then she heard it, a wail. 

She turned around to see the wolf shake violently, like someone was sending shocks of electricity through its body. She watched, at the expense of her heartstrings, to see him begin to bite at himself. What was going on? She cocked her head to one side. As he clawed at his neck, small sparks of something came from around his throat. However, he wasn’t wearing a collar or anything. That meant-

From the limited knowledge she had of the Force, Rey deduced that this was what folks called ‘Force Lightning’. It looked painful. She sighed. Finn sat on the floor of the Falcon wondering what Rey was doing, gawking at the writhing animal. 

She ran out. 

“What the kriff?! Rey!” Finn, with the last of his strength, reached for her hand but missed.

She approached the creature, it whimpered as the shocks began to subside. Rey kept her distance a little, a safety precaution- she wasn’t stupid, and she wouldn’t let her sympathy cloud her judgement enirely. It looked at her: curiously, she wasn’t running away, but rather staring at it directly in the eye. 

She watched as its silver, moon-like spheres followed her as she met its face. Then Rey held out her hand. 

And, by some miracle, it took it. 

“It worked,” she breathed a sigh of relief, “Come on, let’s get you home.”

It limped to the Falcon’s entrance, squinting as the bright lights engulfed its black, shadowy body. Finn looked on, awestruck, as Rey managed to both lead a werewolf onto the ship and still be alive at the same time. 

“This is insane!” Finn whispered as she stopped and realised what she was doing. 

“I’ve brought a werewolf onto the ship.”

“Into what’s gonna be an enclosed space, with no place for us to run to!” he spoke through gritted teeth. 

As if on cue, the doors to the Falcon sealed shut and Chewbacca roared for the ship to engage hyperspace. Rey bit her lip, the full reality of the situation sinking in. However, she wasn’t too worried since the giant wolfman hadn’t eaten them yet. He was, on the other hand, awkwardly hunched over, trying to balance on his two legs. He looked around and sniffed the air, seemingly unsure of what strange place Rey had brought him into. 

Then, Ben began to shake slightly, a small whine came from him. With every passing second, his quivering became more violent, as if he was afflicted with some bone-rattling disease. Rey stood up as the creature recoiled and winced. 

“Ben?” Rey looked at him.

He held his head and groaned. His legs looked like they were about to buckle, he stumbled and dug his claws into a wall.

“Ben, what’s the matter?” she reached for him.

Suddenly, he collapsed onto the floor. 

Finn remained silent. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of BB-8 rolling down the ramp to find a snow-covered Rey, a bleeding Finn and the black mass of a werewolf lying on the floor. 

“Hey, BB-8. How-”

The droid squealed and rolled itself back up from whence it came. 

“Do you think he’ll change back? What’s Leia gonna say?”

“I don’t know, Finn.” 

Rey gently hovered a hand over the unconscious wolf, seeing if he would abruptly rise from the dead. He didn’t, he was deep asleep. Though, she was slightly concerned at how slowly his chest rose and fell, almost like it took effort for him to breathe. She got up from her crouched position and snooped around the ship. Finn didn’t care what she would do now, Kylo Ren was her problem and not his. 

The ex-stormtrooper reached for the medkit on the wall before rolling up his trousers. He cracked open a disinfectant and rubbed it onto the wound, which wasn’t that deep thankfully. He seemed to have judged its severity by how much pain it had brought him rather than how bad it actually was. Finn layered on a few sterristrips and wrapped a bandage around the wound, hoping that would last him until they got to D’Qar. 

Rey offered a hand and helped to ensure the bandage would remain on his leg. Once both of them were satisfied Finn’s injury didn’t need emergency attention, Rey continued to pootle about, looking for something. 

“Rey, you keep pacing. What are you looking for?”

“Do you think there’s a blanket anywhere?”

“A blanket?”

Chewbacca roared from the cockpit. 

“The main corridor?”

Chewie bellowed a ‘yes’. 

She nodded and headed up the boarding ramp. A large supply cupboard stood not too far from the threshold. Rey strode up to the durasteel closet and opened the door. After a few seconds of rummaging, she found exactly what she needed. A large, slightly worn blanket was draped over her arms as she returned to the sleeping wolf. 

“We really should move him.”

“Yeah, but where to? And how? He’s really heavy.”

Chewbacca, bored out of his mind staring at the streams of light outside, decided to eavesdrop on the two rebels at the back. Poe, sitting in the co-pilot seat next to him, unsurely watched as Chewie turned around and stared off into the distance, deciphering the muffled voices. 

“Well, we can’t exactly discreetly move him across the ship!”

_Move who?_

“Ugh, what have I done?”

“What have you done, Rey? Oh, let’s see, you’ve brought a giant killing machine into the Millenium Falcon!”

_KILLING MACHINE?!_

Chewie set the Falcon to autopilot and got up from his seat. What were those kids up to? He marched down the corridor with Poe, BB-8 met them and began to nervously trail behind as the wookie quietly grumbled as he neared the ramp. 

“It’s okay, I’ll just put a blanket over him and-”

Rey and Finn slowly turned around to see a large wookie and a very distressed pilot standing at the top of the ramp. Chewbacca pointed at Rey and opened his mouth to scold her for being noisy, but then his eyes met the dark form of a giant creature lying on the floor of his ship. 

He screamed. 

He screamed like he had never screamed before. 

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” Poe leaned back onto the ramp’s handles, glaring at the black mass on the floor.

Chewbacca paced around the entranceway, incoherently roaring a lecture to the two rebels. They watched him go back and forth, holding his head and then pointing at the wolf as he cried about what Leia was going to think and whether they could even set foot on D’Qar. 

“I know what I’ve done and I know the consequences.”

_But did she really, though?_

He sighed and approached the unconscious form of his nephew. Poe took a seat by Finn, checking he was all right.

The wookie peered at Rey and double-checked that this was indeed Ben Solo.

“It’s him, it’s Ben.”

_It really was, huh?_

He’d usually kick out any filthy animal that would desecrate his ship… but this was no filthy animal, this was his nephew, Ben Solo. He remembered he had promised Ben that he’d protect him from all the monsters of the galaxy. Even though that promise was made when Ben was but four years old, he’d still stand by it. Ben Solo was more than welcome on this ship, no matter what. Chewbacca helped Rey haul the werewolf to the crew quarters. 

Having Kylo stay in the quarters meant that anyone who wanted to take a nap would have to sleep either on one of the beds by the engine or elsewhere, much to Poe’s dismay. The darn wolf took up almost three beds! Chewie draped the blanket over him, hoping he’d change back before they reached D’Qar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Another blaster fired but missed him by a mile. 
> 
> “Why isn’t that thing dying?”
> 
> “I don’t know?”
> 
> “Rey, the lightsaber.”
> 
> “Rey?”
> 
> “REY?!”
> 
> The aspiring Jedi shook her head. “No,” she said.
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “We’re going to die!”
> 
> “THAT’S BEN SOLO!” she yelled.


	39. End Of Act One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :D

Hey guys!

We made it! This is the official end of Act One... I know... Act One... There's more of this shitshow.

But it sure as heck has been worth it, at least we think so lol. Hope you all have enjoyed this saga so far <3\. We'd also like to apologise for the rather erratic upload schedule (is there even a schedule?), we're not very organised but thanks for bearing with us and our chaos. Also big thank you for reading this absolutely cursed piece of work, we've loved writing this and it's given us a lot of practice for our own, individual writing projects ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) . 

Happy Halloween, kids, and expect more chaotic literary carnage!

Yours truly,

Panic!AtTheKylo


	40. Gosh, he's a bit snorty!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren wakes up... again. Man, he does a lot of waking up in this, doesn't he?

“What the kriff?”

The first thing Kylo Ren heard was a muffled sound to his right. He tried to open his eyes to actually see what was going on, but everything was too bright. He could make out blurs of figures shift about behind what he presumed was a face. A face that had a halo of dark hair and big dark eyes. Soon his vision cleared up and he realised he was staring at Rey. However, Rey was not… herself. Well, she was but she didn’t look like it. Her brown hair looked duller than usual, it seemed that everyone looked duller than usual: as if the whole world had had its colours drained from it, leaving only a glum, gothic monochrome universe. 

“Everyone, stay calm-”

“STAY CALM?!”

“Oh my goodness-”

“It’s going to eat us.”

“The probability of that eating us is-”

“C-3PO, shut up.”

“Probability my arse, there’s no probability.”

“It’s a certainty.”

“Excuse me, but what am I looking at here?”

“Forget the First Order, this is…”

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!”

A loud roar reverberated through the Resistance base. Everyone screamed, turned, and ran away at once.

“RRwWhAAay… rRun?” it snarled. _Why. Run?_

“Get that thing away from me!”

“Someone get the blasters out.”

“The blasters? You-”

Someone fired a shot.

Ren doubled over in pain. **_My hands? What?_** he thought. He lifted them to his face again. They weren’t hands. They were paws, with sharp metal talons where his fingers had once been, protruding out at awkward angles. He turned his hands around to find them covered in rich black fur which looked a little glossy in this light. 

“RRRUAT RHE FRRRFUCK!”

“Language, wolfman.”

**_Wolfman? What did you just call me?_ **

This wasn’t real, this was a weird dream. He was probably in the medbay of the Finalizer and this was all a side effect of the medication. Right? It had to be. How else would he find himself in a rebel base? 

Another blaster fired but missed him by a mile. 

“Why isn’t that thing dying?”

“I don’t know?”

“Rey, the lightsaber.”

“Rey?”

“REY?!”

The aspiring Jedi shook her head. “No,” she said.

“What?”

“We’re going to die!”

“THAT’S BEN SOLO!” she yelled.

“WHAT?!”

“THAT’S LEIA’S KRIFFING SON!”

Everyone lowered their weapons at once.

“Someone go get her.”

“You what?”

“Go, now!”

Kylo looked at his hands again. His palms were thick and rough… like paw pads. Now that he thought about it, his hands did awfully look like those of an animal. His thumbs were much shorter and looked as if they had been drawn further back towards his wrists, while the rest of his fingers were elongated and rested in a slightly curled position. Yep, he was either dead or dreaming. 

Then Leia appeared. Kylo Ren concluded that he was in fact dead.

“Ben?” she said, confused. His mother stared at him, slightly scared but more or less assured it was actually him.

“LeeeeAAAAHHh?”

Why couldn’t he talk? He tried to make the right shapes and move his mouth to make the correct sounds but to no avail. His vocal chords just would not cooperate. 

“Son? Oh my- I knew this would happen.”

Kylo Ren groaned and rolled his eyes. Another strange thing he noticed was how everyone was so… small? Okay, this was weird. Why had everybody shrunk?

“Everyone, lower your weapons.”

“But-”

“General Organa-”

“This is the most dangerous man in the galaxy, even more so now he’s turned into… that thing.”

“How can you be sure it’s really him?”

“Yeah.” 

**_It is me! Why are they all acting so strange? It’s me, Kylo Ren! How long am I going to be stuck in this dream?!_ **

“Paige, go get a mirror.”

Paige Tico shakily nodded her head and ran off into the camp.

“I knew this would happen! I knew this would happen and you didn’t listen to me and now, you’re stuck like this! Oh my days! I kriffing knew this was going to happen, Ben!”

“RRRRREEEEEUGGGGH?”

“Don’t even try to talk back to me, son!”

He shut up and waited for the girl to come back with a mirror. He was sure this all wasn’t as bad as these dream people were making it out to be. 

“This isn’t a dream, Ben,” Rey stood next to Leia, “B-but don’t worry, we’ll get you back to normal.”

Paige gently eased her way through the crowd with a mirror in her quivering hands. She handed it to Leia, who placed it in Kylo's paws. 

Kylo stared at his reflection, silently begging for this surreal nightmare to be over. Before him, glaring back, were a pair of two silver eyes set in a canine face. A canine face that had a muzzle lined with fearsome, bone crushing teeth. Ren couldn't help but gawk at his own, terrifying face. A permanent, grizzly snarl was plastered onto this strange wolven visage with his lip stuck slightly peeled back exposing more of his teeth… which were just too big, unsettlingly big.

**_Is that what I truly look like?_ **

Sure, he knew that whatever beast lay under his skin was maddeningly scary, as shown by what he had reduced the First Order High Command to, but… to see it for himself… to be it. He was going to have night-terrors from looking at his own face. 

The rebel crowd watched him as he felt his long snout with his giant paws, fearing what he'd do next. 

"He'll scream, just give him a minute." Connix muttered.

A few seconds later and she was proven right. Kylo Ren let out a howling roar before dropping the mirror, it shattered upon hitting the sandy ground. He felt his face just to double check, then he patted around his body. Nope, he was still a giant manwolf, no matter how loud he yelled, he wasn't going to change back any time soon. Ren tripped over and fell through a couple of wooden crates. Upon standing up again, his head went through the fabric gazebo sheltering them. 

"Easy, Ben. I-" Leia tried to reach for him, but he recoiled and continued to scramble about.

Then he felt something slide up his arm like a feathered serpent. He slowly turned around to see his tail wrapped around his elbow. The young Solo shrieked and sprinted away from the crowd, straight into the heart of D'Qar's camp. Screams and cries could be heard along with bashful crashes and clatters. 

"I'll go get him," Leia rolled her eyes and followed Ren's path of destruction and mayhem.

“General Organa, should somebody accompany you? J-just in case.”

She scrunched her face and thought for a moment, perhaps it would be good to take such a precaution. As guilty as it made her feel, she decided that it might be a good idea to have someone watching her back. 

“Rey?” 

The girl in question nodded her head and headed off with Leia. 

“Ben?” she called out as she meandered through the now empty central camp. 

She heard a whine come from her right. The general turned a corner to find a wreckage of pots and pans as well as a giant wolf trying to hide under a curtain clearly too small for him. His hind legs and tail poked out from underneath, his dark fur was a stark contrast to the almost white fabric. A small rumble of whimper came from his quivering form. 

Leia gently lifted the veil to find him covering his eyes with his paws, ears were flat against his head. 

“Oh, Ben…” she sighed and knelt beside him, “Come on, you’re covered in sand and dirt. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

He tentatively took a paw off one of his eyes and stared at her. She held out her hand and reluctantly, he took it. Leia led him through the base to her quarters. His shaggy black mane was dusted with white sand, which speckled and matted his fur like dried paint. He smelt awful too, Rey and Leia tried not to make faces as they took him to Leia’s manse. He was musty, like a wet dog. 

“How are you feeling? When I took you onto the Falcon, you passed out suddenly, do you have any idea why? We might need to get you a doctor,” Rey looked up at him as he limped beside her. 

“MMmmmbLeuGh.” 

“Right…” 

“L’egg! Fibshh… Giiggphh… blyat.”

He sighed. 

“Hmm, we should do that Force-thing! Maybe you can communicate with that?”

“YaRgh!” Kylo paused, “Mibsh! Bla-”

Try this?

**_Rargh? Wait- Oh, uh…_ **

Rey laughed a little.

**_To answer your question, I have no idea._ **

“That’s strange. Though, maybe this might be the more pressing issue that we need to deal with.”

“I’m sure there’ll be something in the archives that could help. Luke might know as well,” Leia muttered to herself as she opened the doors to her quarters. 

**_Luke?!_** Kylo growled.

“Ben, would you set your anger and hatred aside for once? He could be your saving grace.”

He snarled. 

His mother pinched her nose and scolded him before pushing the curtains apart to reveal a tub. A bathtub way too small for him. 

“I don’t think we can squeeze him in here.”

“What about hosing him down in the hangar workshop?” Rey suggested.

**_Hose me down?! How fucking dare-_ **

“We could.”

**_What?!_ **

“Look at yourself, Ben. You’re filthy!” Leia picked off a small grain of sand from his knotted fur.

He sighed and waddled off ahead, only to bang his head against the doorway… loudly. 

**_You laugh, you die._ **

To see the mighty Kylo Ren wobble and stumble like a newborn foal was something Rey thought she’d never witness. He was supposed to be this notorious warlord who was so elegant in fighting that people would end up standing and watching in awe rather than running away and saving themselves. And yet, here he was, tripping over his tail and awkwardly trying to place his next step. She gave a small sigh and held out her hand.

“Let me help.”

He moved her hand away and continued on. Soon, they were out in the open sun once more. Rey led the disoriented werewolf to the nearest hangar. 

“Hey, Rey- Woah! Woah! Woah! You can’t just bring that thing in here! Do you know how delicate this equipment is?!”

“Jessika, don’t worry. I’ll keep him away from the-”

_CRASH!_

Jessika Pava sighed as Kylo gave an awkward grin.

“I’ve been working on that cannon since I got back from Starkiller.”

Rey shifted and grimaced, salvaging the wreckage by Kylo’s long tail. The scavenger girl examined the chunks of metal and fried wires, she could fix this… hang on, if she could just weld the outer casing together and replace the wires (thankfully the actual cannon itself hadn’t been destroyed), she could get this up and running again. It would take a while of course and a ton of manual reading, however, Rey had faith. It would be a lot of work but this wasn’t beyond saving. 

“I can fix it!” Rey managed to twist her face into a somewhat assuring grin, “If you help clean up him-”

“The giant wolfman.”

“Yeah, the giant wolfman… I can get this back in shipshape in say… two weeks?”

Jessika gave Rey a quizzical look and pouted as she thought about the offer.

“Alright, fine, but keep him in that corner.”

Kylo Ren growled at the pilot before reluctantly scooting over.

“Don’t growl at me. You broke my equipment.”

He only snarled louder as Rey haphazardly nudged him towards the front of the hangar.

“Sorry about that,” she said, trying to apologise. “He’s having a bad hair day.”

“Quite literally,” Leia added.

**_Kill me now. Just do it. Please._ **

“Don’t be so dramatic, Ben!” Rey exclaimed. 

He begrudgingly stood at the opening of the warehouse-like structure, awaiting his doom. Rey unwound the hose from its coil and twizzled the nozzle, typically the Resistance would use these on fires but Rey saw fit to make this clearly old and worn extinguisher a new career in the dog grooming business. 

She had her hand hovered over the tap. “Ready, Ben?” 

**_No. No, no, no, NO, NO, NO-_ **

Water gushed out at full velocity, spewing all over the sandy front of the hangar and giving the dull floor a new, glossy shine. Rey squeezed her eyes shut as the fountainous, foamy explosion shot sharp drops of water at her face. However, in the moment of blindness, Kylo saw the opportunity to escape the water’s icy expulsion and ran. 

“Ben, NO! NOT THE CURTAINS!” Leia yelled.

She watched her son awkwardly slide down the banners, raking them with his claws as the earsplitting, Hux-like screech of the metal bars giving way ripped through the once silent workshop. Rey followed the black mass as it slowly descended onto the floor, only to meet the blast of dihydrogen monoxide. Everyone watched the Jedi Killer being defeated by water. He scrambled away only to slip and slide and fall on his face. With no dignity left to lose, Kylo Ren accepted his fate and let Rey hose him down. 

After a couple of minutes rinsing, she turned the tap off and rummaged through the supply cupboards around them. Kylo eyed her cautiously as she approached him with a bunch of bottles in her arms. 

**_What’s in those?_ **

“There’s not really anything around here for uh… werewolves, or even dogs for that matter, so I hope you don’t mind being washed with horse shampoo.”

**_HORSE SHAMPOO?!_ **

“Well, you are roughly the size of one.”

**_H O R S E S H A M P O O !_ **

“Look, it’s got anti-flea treatment and vitamin E so you may as well-”

**_ANTI-FLEA TREATMENT! WHAT ARE YOU-_ **

“Ben, I hate to break it to you, but you’re covered in fur and- what’s that around your neck?”

Rey pointed at the strange collection of rags just about hanging onto Kylo. He held them in his paw, unsure of where she was going with this.

“Take those off.”

**_Excuse me?_ **

“That’s going to hurt you, it looks tight around your neck. Here, I’ll help.”

He gave a warning growl.

“Come on, this is for your own good. I promise, you’ll feel much better-”

He swatted her hands away and hissed. 

“Ben-”

**_No._ **

“Why? I can see it’s digging into you!”

**_Those are my clothes!_ **

“You. Are. Covered. In. Fur.”

**_I. Am. Not. Taking. This. Off._ **

“Oh for goodness sake.”

Before he could even react, Rey yoinked it off in one swift motion. 

He had never felt so violated before. 

“Oh my gosh, don’t glare at me like that. I mean look at these!” Rey scolded him as she held the rags of what would have been his surcoat.

**_I hate you._ **

“Stop whinging and let me get these sand grains out of your fur.”

**_I feel extremely violated._ **

“Mhm,” she hummed while she lathered up the soap in her hands.

**_I am Kylo Ren! Commander of the First Order!_ **

“Okay,” Rey murmured, only half-listening to Kylo’s words. 

**_I really don’t like this._ **

“Well, get over it because I’m telling you, you’re going to thank Leia and I for having this idea.”

**_I’m not some pet you can just- are you putting a conditioner on me?!_ **

“Yeah? It’ll make your mane look glossy and your fur was probably really dehydrated from the sand.”

He grumbled as she ran her fingers through his mane, which was now slightly slippery with the off-brand horse conditioner. Rey tried not to laugh as she rubbed it into the fur around his cheeks, she didn’t want to upset him further. His angry expression was already intense enough. The scavenger girl did have to admit that his indignant silence did bring some degree of peace to her, at least she could now get the flea treatment in without him complaining at the back of her head. Once the conditioner was left to rest for a few minutes, Rey hosed him down once more, though she decided it would be best to lower the intensity of the water’s projection- she didn’t need him to whine about being smacked in the face by a hurling stream of foam and fury. 

Soon enough, the whole ordeal began to draw to a close. Rey towel-dried the giant wolf off and let him go about his business, which was currently sulking in the darkest corner of the hangar. The girl sighed as she watched him awkwardly tuck his paws under himself like a disproportionately large cat. She shook her head and collected the remains of Jessika’s cannon and headed for Poe’s workshop. 

A couple of hours later she returned, to find Kylo Ren still brooding in the same spot she left him. 

“Ben?”

“Woof!” he chuffed.

“So… Do you want to grab dinner with Poe and I? And maybe get some fresh air while you’re out? Before...” Rey trailed off. “Before Han’s…” Another pause. “Before his funeral.” 

She hesitantly sat beside him. He edged away and placed his tail in front of her, creating a division of sorts. 

The promise of food and a window of escape brought somewhat happiness to Kylo. However, he then realised he couldn’t really make a discreet escape, not to mention that the First Order wouldn’t exactly welcome him back while looking like this. He was pretty hungry, though. He felt like he could eat the entirety of the hangar-

Wait, no… he couldn’t seriously be thinking that?! He wasn’t an animal, he was Kylo fucking Ren and Kylo Ren wasn’t some feral beast. No, he could eat, but not people. He made it very clear to himself that he wasn’t craving human flesh. But deep down, he could feel the urge to rip Rey apart begin to fester inside of him. His claws dug into the ground as the hunger suddenly became a little overwhelming. 

**_Han._ **

He couldn’t give in to it. Not after… Han. **_Dad._**

Tears pricked his eyes as he retreated under his tail, batting away Rey’s hand. 

The girl pouted and got hold of his paw, tugging him gently. 

“Come on, let’s go.”

**_No..._ **

He trudged out of the hangar, Rey holding his paw as she led him through the camp. The sights and smells of the camp’s cookery tents made the deep heat in his stomach burn with a new ferocity. Kylo winced as he began to feel his consciousness fade a little. 

Han. The image of his face crept into his mind’s eye. Kylo felt a pain that he had never felt before, his heartstrings wrenched apart inside of him, butterflies in his stomach now scratching his insides. 

Han…

Han.

**_Dad!_ **

**_What did I do?_ **

His mouth was beginning to water now, that same… non-sapient urge. The more he thought about Han, the more he regretted coming out here. And the more tempting the urge to harm became. 

“Ben, what’s wrong?”

He groaned and held his head. 

“Ben?”

He eased himself down to all fours, his head feeling heavy. Rey watched him stride on ahead, trying to shake off this ravenous sensation. She was a little unsure as to why he had suddenly adopted the more bestial stance, and so, she reached for him. 

“Ben, are you-”

The wolf turned around and looked at her with a slight snarl. Yet, this snarl wasn’t one of a grumpy, egotistical Dark Side Apprentice; rather, it was a hungry grimace. His eyes analysed her as if she were a new face, a stranger to him. Rey gulped, unsure of the sudden change in behaviour. She watched the small drips of drool hang from his lower jaws as he took another step towards her, his tail swishing from side to side menacingly. 

“Ben, is that you?” she whimpered. 

He roared and raised a clawed fist in the air. She screamed and flinched back. Silence. Rey tentatively opened her eyes to find the talons just millimetres from her face. She also found a very disoriented Ben looking at his hand quizzically. He stumbled back and rose onto his hind legs, peering at her with scared eyes. 

“B-Ben?”

She could see in his eyes that he was back. 

He folded his paws on top of each other and kept them close to his chest. Ears were flat on his head as he sniffed around her, still maintaining some degree of distance. 

“Y-you were… “

**_What?_ **

“You were like a wolf… like a wolf-wolf… “ Rey leaned against one of the wooden posts, a startled expression was still on her face. 

This was a mistake, he’d do it again. He’d do it again and he’d… enjoy it. No! **_By the Force, no!_** He couldn’t. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t okay… even for someone like him. 

No one just kills their father and walks away untainted. 

Attending the funeral would be a mistake. Seeing Uncle Chewie and Leia would be a mistake. 

What if he gave into it and killed them, too? 

No… he could watch from a distance, right? 

He’d still be attending then, wouldn’t he? He’d still be paying his respects…

...To his own fucking father.

**_Argh! Fuck!_ **

She watched as he whined and held his head in shame. Then, before she could call him back, he fled. 

“Wait!”

He disappeared over the horizon, his bleak, black silhouette soon merging with the dark night’s sky. Rey could do nothing but look up to the silver disk that floated above her, wondering what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on _Ill Met By Moonlight_ :
> 
> Nine leaned back against the straight stitched leather of a pilot seat. Kylo Ren’s command shuttle was not the most comfortable of spacecraft - it was designed to withstand enemy fire, not the whims of the crew within - but there was no denying it had class. Streaks of red and silver paint crisscrossed the sleek coat of matte black that covered almost every surface, as the lights, holograms, and heads-up-displays dimmed to match the natural environment. The Sith glanced around the shuttle. No one was awake.


End file.
